No gang rapes in Murthal, Haryana tells High Court

Chandigarh: Submitting a status report on the alleged Murthal gang rapes, the Haryana government on Monday told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that no such rapes or incidents of molestation were reported from Haryana’s Sonipat district during the recent Jat agitation. The preliminary status report was submitted following investigations into the matter by an three-member all-women special investigation team (SIT) constituted last week by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s government. The SIT report said no woman had come forward to lodge a complaint of gang rapes in Murthal on February 22. The high court, taking suo motu notice of a media report about the gang rapes, had asked the government and the state police to submit a status report on the issue by Monday. The high court appointed lawyer Anupam Gupta as amicus curie in the matter. A woman from Delhi’s Narela area on Sunday complained that she was gang-raped by seven men on February 22-23 night near Murthal. However, the SIT and other police officers said that preliminary investigations indicated this case was not linked to the Jat agitation. The high court told the SIT to submit a complete report by March 14.