Greater Noida:
A bench of the Allahabad High Court has refused to order a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged rape of women in Bhatta and Parsaul villages in Uttar Pradesh by police jawans. The alleged rapes took place in the aftermath of the land acquisitions clashes between farmers and Noida police in May last year. Those violent clashes had also claimed the lives of two farmers and two policemen.
"A committee of officers will monitor investigations by the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Since there is a change of regime, the court is hopeful that a fair probe will be conducted by the state CID," the court observed.
The court also observed that it will monitor the progress of the investigation and the CID has to give a progress report to the government with the next four months.
The Allahabad High Court had, earlier, reserved its judgement on January 16, and looking at the political sensitivity of the dispute decided to deliver it after the state wrapped up the 2012 Assembly elections.
The rape charge against jawans of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) surfaced in the aftermath of the violence when Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi claimed that victims had confided in him during his visit to the twin villages.
Mr Gandhi's allegation was prima facie found to be true by the National Commission for Women and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission that received representations from seven women from the village who claimed they were raped by the PAC jawans. Ironically, the claims of rape were not backed by the fact finding team of the National Human Rights Commission.
Women from the Bhatta and Parsaul villages, after months of their ordeal going unnoticed, spoke out in October last year alleging cases of rape against policemen, who cracked down on the protesters. ''The day the firing happened (May 7) police forcibly entered our homes. Some stood outside our homes and some 3-4 policemen misbehaved with us. They forced themselves upon us and raped us,'' a rape victim had said (name withheld).
A First Information Report (FIR) to probe the rape charges also took almost six months to be lodged and only happened after the intervention of the High Court when victims moved pleas seeking the lodging of the FIR.
The order by the then Mayawati government had come after the SC/ST Commission stepped in. The chairman of the SC/ST Commission, PL Punia, had told NDTV that it will initiate contempt proceedings unless the Uttar Pradesh Police initiated immediate action on the Bhatta Parsaul rapes and registered FIRs.
Finally the Noida police succumbed to judicial pressure and intervention and on October 24 last year an FIR was lodged in the Dankaur police station in Greater Noida. 16 PAC jawans had been identified as accused in the case.
The tension between the police and the villagers in the twin villages of Bhatta-Parsaul stems from large protests by farmers who want the government to return the land that had been acquired for them for public projects. The farmers allege that the land they had surrendered had been passed onto commercial real estate developers and the government was making a profit. As protests broke out, police allegedly opened fire.