Noida:
Whether six women were raped by policemen in Greater Noida during a weekend in May has become a political point of such significance that three different committees have been roped in for their assessment.
It was Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who first declared that during a visit to the twin villages of Bhatta and Parsaul, locals told him that the police had raped women. The tension between the police and the villagers stemmed from large protests by farmers who wanted the government to return the land that had been acquired for them for public projects. The farmers pointed out that the land they had been surrendered had been passed onto commercial real estate developers. The government was making a profit. So would the developers when the apartment buildings and malls they were building were ready. As the state government tried to control the protests, the police allegedly opened fire. Four people were killed, including two policemen.
Uttar Pradesh votes soon for its next government and the Congress tried hard to establish it was sensitive to the local mood. Mr Gandhi marched through several villages to attend a maha-panchayat with farmers in Aligarh
But it was his allegations of rape that caused the real commotion. The Mayawati government denied these reports. And then one after another, different commissions began weighing in. Now, the chairmen of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) P L Punia, has issued an arrest warrant against a senior police officer in Noida who has allegedly skipped four appointments with the panel. Mr Punia also wants to know why an FIR or formal police case has still not been registered. The fact that Mr Punia is a Congress MP may allow Mayawati to claim he is prejudiced against her government. The Commission got involved because of the number of scheduled castes in the area.
In their preliminary report in May, the National Commission for Women (NCW) headed by Yasmeen Abrar, also known to be close to the Congress declared there was no evidence of rape. Four months later, she changed her stand. She said the women were scared and under intense pressure to backtrack their statements but they have recorded them over time.
Then the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) headed by K G Balakrishnan, reported that the accusations of rape were incorrect. KG Balakrishnan, who is believed to be close to Mayawati, recommended that the state's crime branch handle the investigation. The NHRC, NCW, NCSC, get involved either if a complaint is filed to them from the concerned party or if they take suo moto action.
The grey areas are made more complex by the fact that of the six alleged victims, three have contradicted themselves. They told the National Human Rights Commission that they were not raped. Their affidavits to the Scheduled Caste Commission, given in July, say they were sexually assaulted. Supporters of Mayawati point out that the first complaints of rape were made by the victims two months after the alleged crimes.