Murthal rape did occur, need to bring culprits to book: HC

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 19

Pulling the Murthal rape incident out of the sphere of questionability into the realm of reality, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday minced no words to say “it was evident that rape has been committed”.

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Virtually putting an end to all speculations on the incident, a Division Bench of the High Court, hearing the suo motu case based on the Tribune reports, added the allegations of rape were not without basis. “Rather, rape had taken place and the culprits were required to be brought to book for instilling confidence in public at large.”

The assertion by the bench of Justice SS Saron and Justice Darshan Singh comes as a sharp contrast to Haryana government’s 10-month denial of rape. It came just before advocate Sumeet Goel on CBI’s behalf told the bench that it was bound by the court orders on the question of probe by the premier investigating agency, indicating that it was not averse to idea of looking into the matter.

Dictating the orders in the open court, the bench emphasised that the special investigating team, constituted for looking into the case, would make every effort to track down the culprits involved in rape and kidnapping at Murthal.

Referring to statements by two witnesses — Bobby Joshi and Raj Kumar — the bench observed they had stated that women were dragged out and taken to the fields.

Besides this, women undergarments with human semen were discovered in the fields of Murthal, making it evident that rape had taken place.

At the very onset, the bench asserted that its own conclusion regarding Haryana government’s stand in the matter was that rape had been committed, but the SIT was unable to trace the culprits and the victims.

Responding to the observation, Haryana Additional Advocate-General Pawan Girdhar insisted investigation was on, but there was no victim or witness. At the stage, they were not ruling out the possibility of rape but molestation had taken place.

The bench, in turn, asserted so long as the statements of Bobby Joshi and Raj Kumar were there, coupled with the discovery of human semen on the clothes, it could not be said rape had not taken place.

The witness, Raj Kumar, in his statement before the police under Section 161 of CrPC, had stated that he was travelling in his car on February 22 last year, on the Delhi-Kurukshetra stretch. At about 2.30 am, he saw 10-15 boys burning and damaging cars.

He also saw three-four boys dragging a girl from her hair and arm near from a car ahead of his vehicle to bushes near Sukhdev Dhaba. All the while she was screaming for help. Raj Kumar had added he would be in a position to show the cops the bushes in case he was taken to the spot. 

After his statement was read out in the open court by the amicus curiae or the friend of the Court Anupam Gupta, the bench said Raj Kumar was a “natural witness”. He was not making assumptions. The girl was crying (for help) “bachao-bachao”. The observation came in response to SIT in-charge Mamta Singh’s claim that there was deviation in Raj Kumar’s statements. Before parting with the order, the bench fixed February 28 as the next date of hearing.