HC refuses to shut eyes to Murthal ‘rape’

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 17

Refusing to shut its eyes to the “rape” in Murthal during the Jat reservation agitation in February last year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today made it clear that the Bench may consider handing over the probe to the CBI if the special investigating team (SIT) fails to come out with anything substantive within a month.

At the outset, Justices SS Saron and Avneesh Jhingan asserted: “The court cannot shut its eyes to the occurrence of rape. There were undergarments with semen on it and statement of witness Bobby Joshi… How can everyone just keep quiet about it?” 

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Granting time to enable the SIT to complete the probe, the Bench said: “In case nothing substantive is made out, the case may require consideration for transfer to the CBI.” It asserted that investigations by the SIT headed by Mamta Singh were at “some relevant stage”. It would, as such, be inappropriate to transfer the matter to the CBI at this juncture.

At the same time, the Bench observed that given sufficient time to probe the matter, the SIT must come out with a specific time-frame as the court could not keep adjourning the matter time and again. Haryana Additional Advocate General Pawan Girdhar, as instructed by Mamta Singh, said the probe would be concluded in a month and that the state had never said rape had never taken place. 

Earlier, during the course of hearing, Mamta Singh referred to last year’s news reports on the burning down of a BMW car and women being dragged out. The SIT incharge said she was in touch with insurance companies to find out whether any claims were made. She said so far she had neither been able to trace any victim nor any accused, nor lay her hands on any lead.

Amicus curiae (friend of the court) Anupam Gupta retorted that he lacked confidence in the SIT. He said Haryana Additional Chief Secretary Vijay Vardhan had approached him through officer Ashok Khemka for information on “witness” Amrik Singh deposing before the Parkash Singh committee. He said Amrik Singh may have been in a denial mode, but would speak up before the CBI, if the case was handed over to it.

Another SIT set up under Dhillon

• The High Court Bench approved 1997-batch IPS officer Amitabh Dhillon’s name for heading another SIT
• The second SIT would look into all cases, except five under the CBI and the Murthal case
• The Bench said Dhillon's team “shall act independently and submit a report by the adjourned date”
• It observed 173 persons were arrested and reports filed in 81 cases, but 1,105 cases remained unattended