Jat stir: Prakash Singh committee report confirms 'mass rape' in Murthal, says ladies reached dhaba without clothes

Chandigarh: The Prakash Singh committee probing the violence during the Jat agitation in Haryana in February this year submitted a report to High Court. 

Shockingly, the report submitted by the committee confirmed the 'mass rape' incident during the Jat quota agitation. 

'Reports that several women were dragged out of cars and raped in Haryana’s Murthal on the night of February 22 during the Jat protest have been confirmed by owners of dhabas', a court was told on Monday, reports NDTV.

Senior lawyer Anupam Gupta, helping the Haryana High Court in the case, told NDTV that women, who were subjected to sexual assaults, later made their way inside a Murthal dhaba, where people helped them with clothes and blankets and helped them reach back their homes. 

Gupta also stated that the dhaba owners had made their statement before an inquiry headed by retired police officer Prakash Singh. The inquiry was set up into alleged lapses by the administration and the police; it was submitted in court by the state government.

Prakash Singh, a former police chief of Uttar Pradesh, also said that some dhaba owners in Murthal confirmed the Murthal 'mass rape' incident. 

Days after the nine-day Jat agitation, media reports claimed that the mass gang rapes took place on the night of February 22 and that up to 10 women were sexually assaulted by a group of nearly 40 hooligans during the Jat community`s agitation or reservation.

The women were allegedly pulled out of their cars, stripped and gang-raped in nearby fields. The victims later reached a nearby popular dhaba and sought help. 

Earlier, visuals of torn women's clothing, including inner wear had surfaced from the alleged crime site in Murthal. 

However, the rape reports were dismissed by the Haryana Police who claimed that women's inner wear could have fallen out from bags of the commuters who were stopped and chased away by the Jat protestors during the agitation.

The Haryana government and police, who earlier maintained that no gang rapes occurred near Murthal during the quota stir, later set up an all-women inquiry committee to probe the alleged gang rapes on women.