Report confirms ‘misbehaviour’ with women near Murthal

CHANDIGARH: The Prakash Singh Committee has said that rioters during the Jat agitation misbehaved with women. This also happened near Sukhdev Dhaba (Murthal). People reported to the committee that under the garb of the agitation, women were not spared.

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 31

The Prakash Singh Committee has said that rioters during the Jat agitation misbehaved with women. This also happened near Sukhdev Dhaba (Murthal). People reported to the committee that under the garb of the agitation, women were not spared. Though the committee did not probe Murthal gang rapes that took place on the intervening night of February 21 and 22 on the plea that the issue is already before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the committee visited Murthal and learnt about “misbehaviour” with women.

The report has further documented how the agitators used children, women and elderly persons as human shields that prevented security agencies from acting. There are several incidents pointing out that under garb of demanding reservation, goons abused women, attacked them and behaved in an unacceptable manner.

Specially referring to the committee’s visit to Sukhdev Dhaba at Murthal, the committee has written, “On February 22, agitators set ablaze several vehicles parked near Sukhdev Dhaba, Murthal, and harassed the stranded commuters. They also reportedly misbehaved with some women”. Though Prakash Singh stopped here while talking of Murthal but he told at least two mediapersons after submitting his report that “something very dishonourable had happened to women at Murthal”.

One Om Prakash Subedaar, ex-Sarpanch, Hansi, and others collectively told the Committee that 15-20 agitators came to the house of Sanjay Gujjar and set his Bolero and two motorcycles on fire, misbehaved with women and even manhandled them. Similarly, Shashi Parmar, ex-MLA, Mundhal, stated that a Rajput girl was harassed by some Jats sitting in dharna and they misbehaved with her. This flared up sentiments of the Rajput community, resulting in a conflict between Jats and members of other castes. Similar reports have also been documented from Bhiwani.

On Monday, amicus curiae Anupam Gupta told the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that Amrik Singh had told the committee that women with tattered clothes had come to his dhaba where there were provided with clothes and shelter.