No confirmation of rape in Bhatta-Parsaul, says government

NEW DELHI: In a major rebuff to the claims of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi that there were incidences of rape at Bhatta-Parsaul village in Uttar Pradesh, the government on Friday told the Rajya Sabha that there was no confirmation of any such cases in the Greater Noida villages during clashes between farmers and police in May.

"An inquiry committee constituted by the National Commission for Women visited the Bhatta-Parsaul villages in UP on May 12. No specific case of rape has been confirmed by the Inquiry Committee," Women and Child Welfare Minister Krishna Tirath said in reply to a written question.

Rahul Gandhi and his fellow AICC General Secretary Digvijaya Singh have been claiming that women were raped after the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh ordered a crackdown on the agitators. "People are being murdered. There are 70 feet ashes there with dead bodies inside. Everybody in the village knows. Women have been raped, people have been thrashed, houses have been destroyed," Rahul Gandhi had said after visiting the twin villages.

He had also led a delegation of farmers hit by violence over land acquisition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and complained about "repression".

At the meeting, the delegation had alleged that women were raped and people had found 74 heaps of ashes with dead bodies inside after the May 7 violence when villagers clashed with police. But this charge turned out to be untrue after investigations.