Nine rapes took place in Murthal during 2016 Jat stir, court told

Chandigarh: At least nine women were raped in Murthal during the Jat agitation in 2016, senior advocate and amicus curiae in Murthal gang-rape case told the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday. 

As the court resumed hearing in the case on Thursday afternoon, Gupta told before a new bench headed by Justice AK Mittal that former Haryana DGP KP Singh had himself admitted the factum of rapes. 

The bench desisted from making any observation, saying it will have to go through the records of the case. The case will now come up for hearing on November 6.

Gupta reiterated that he was informed by senior Haryana bureaucrat Vijay Vardhan that as many as nine women were raped near Murthal during the February 2016 violence.

Gupta stated that Vardhan, who was a member of Prakash Singh committee along with the DGP-rank officer KP Singh, had provided this information to him on a mobile phone and his call record can be verified. 

Vardhan, on the other hand, has denied having any such communication with Gupta on the matter. 

Gupta also told the court if the owner of Murthal-based Sukhdev dhaba, who had told the media about the rapes but denied it before the SIT, would speak like a canon, if the case is handed over to the CBI.

The court, however, desisted from making any observation and adjourned the matter for November 6 for further hearing.