Saw women being molested, say truckers

CHANDIGARH:More witnesses have mustered the courage to speak about the horror on NH-1 near Murthal in the wee hours of February 22 with four of them telling the media that they had seen women, their clothes torn, being dragged out of their vehicles and taken to nearby fields by armed goons.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 27

More witnesses have mustered the courage to speak about the horror on NH-1 near Murthal in the wee hours of February 22 with four of them telling the media that they had seen women, their clothes torn, being dragged out of their vehicles and taken to nearby fields by armed goons.

Police personnel have now been deployed at the Ghannaur-Murthal stretch where the women were allegedly raped. Chief Minister ML Khattar told mediapersons today that he was considering setting up a special team comprising women officer to look into the allegations.

Meanwhile, the three-member team headed by DIG Rajshree today visited the "crime site". One of the members said they had been receiving obnoxious calls after their phone numbers were made public yesterday.

An eyewitness said not had he seen women being molested, but infants being roughed up too. They said the goons, some riding motorcycles, chased and attacked the terrified women as they cried out for help. But there was no policeman to rescue them. "Calls on 100 went unattended,” he alleged. Truck driver Yadvendra, a resident of Fatehgarh Sahib, said,

“I was stranded near Apollo School on NH-1 on February 22. I saw youths smashing windowpanes and setting vehicles ablaze.” He said he was robbed of his bag containing Rs 6,500. “As I ran towards the fields to save myself, I saw several goons molesting women,” he said.

Trick driver Niranjan of Pathankot, who was also stranded near Apollo School, said: “I saw hooligans torching vehicles. Some youths asked stranded women to escape to nearby villages. This was a trap. I did not see women being raped, but their shrieks said it all.”

Sukhwinder Singh, whose vehicle was torched, said: “It was near Pipli Khera village (near Ghannaur) that women were molested and their children dragged away.”

Satbir Satti of Adampur, who was on his way to Delhi on February 22, said he saw two women (he later learnt they were NRIs) running helter and skelter without slippers and dupattas as a mob chased them. Satti, whose Ertiga car was set ablaze, said: “While one woman was from Calgary, the other was from Edmonton. I heard people saying they had seen hooligans dragging women to nearby fields.”

Satti's neighbours said he had narrated the horrific incident to them on his return from Delhi on February 25. "My aunt, whom I was to drop at the airport, is yet to come to terms with what she saw that day. She too had to hide herself in a dhaba," he said.

(Inputs by Parveen Arora, BS Malik and Deepkamal Kaur)