An investigation that was not to be!

For any Non Resident Indian landing at New Delhi and moving up North, the town of Murthal holds a special significance as the first and the must halt to taste the savories of the region and get the first feeling of having reached home. This time the name Murthal didn’t bring the same feeling for many, even those who were not visiting India. And those who were have horrifying tales to share of having seen burnt shops and cars lying all around the National Highway.

An agitation that was against the government in an attempt to seek reservations for one of the most affluent communities of Haryana was allowed to go out of hand. The reported rape of 10 women happened when half of the state of Haryana was under curfew, seven districts handed over to the Army, and a general alert was issued for the whole state.

Out of uncountable TV channels active in the national capital none reported the event till the good, old trusted English daily from Chandigarh “The Tribune reported” the news of the alleged rape of 10 women by 30-odd men on National Highway -1 near Murthal in Haryana on February 22. A creditable newspaper not known for sensationalism or trivialization of news, the story was credited to the two of the senior reporters of the paper who had visited the alleged site and had spoken to people living and working around the crime spot. Neither the BJP government in Haryana nor the BJP government at the Centre reacted.

It was left to the Punjab and Haryana High Court; Justice Naresh Kumar Sanghi who took cognizance and said that the incident required a probe by the “premier investigating agency” of the country .The Haryana Human Rights Commission also took suomotu cognizance of the report. Instead of calling a central agency for probe, preliminary inquiry was conducted by Haryana Police and termed the report as a rumor. The same Haryana Police was charged with looking the other way. In a way it went on to exonerate itself!

The reports got the reinforcement it deserved when high judiciary, High Court, and Human Rights Commission moved with such a speed based on a news reports. During all these days the media in Delhi remained pre occupied with debates where the leaders from the ruling party and the opposition were busy issuing certificates of its own kind under the label of “my nationalism is better than yours”.

Under pressure, the Haryana Government formed a three women police officer probe commission and went to the area. Media showed villagers alleging having seen naked woman with two kids trying to escape molesters, a lady from Delhi has formally complained to the police about being a victim of gang rapeinMurthal. However, the police seem to see the complaint as having lost much of its credibility as victim named one of her relatives as the accused. There were witnesses who spoke to not only The Tribune but also to certain TV channels of circumstantial evidence pointing to molestations. There were villagers who had said that they had rushed to provide clothes to women who had been stripped and molested.

While the possibility of sexual assaults cannot be ruled out, evidence is required to have a fool-proof case and identify the culprits. Instead of doing so, the all women probe panel of Haryana police claimed that “no rape linked to Jat agitation had taken place.” The panel conducted a shoddy investigation where it revealed the names of the witnesses and the lonely women to have approached the panel. The victims are reported to be from Delhi and Punjab and were said to have been attacked on their way home. None of them, except one, has come forward to file a complaint.  And perhaps wouldn’t come out too as the Haryana Police had had allegedly warned them against going public for it would not be in their interest.

The probe panel did what it was directed to do and not what it was supposed to do. Suppress the evidence, warn the witness and let the Haryana Police come out clean. Not realizing that such an inconsiderate approach under the direction of the political masters would only encourage the miscreants. As expected the police have now told the court that there were indeed no such incidents.