2 January 2004,
New Delhi


The National Human Rights Commission has taken cognizance of the alleged rape of a 20 year old girl at Faridabad which appeared in the newspaper 'The Hindu' dated 22 December 2003.

As per the news item captioned "No taker for Assault Case "the 20 old year girl had been repeatedly raped and strangled and her half naked body was found tied to a tree almost two weeks ago at Faridabad. The newspaper reported the family members of the deceased victim as having repeatedly approached the police, but the police had in turn asked them whether they suspected anyone in the crime. It was also reported that the police had said that they would apprehend the culprit soon but even after a lapse of 15 days the police were still clueless about the culprit. The news item quoted the neighbours of the victim as saying that they are living under fear and girls in the locality dare not step out off their house alone.

The media report also raised a point that no women's group, Human Rights organization not even the National Commission for Women have taken cognizance of the ghastly incident which took place so close to the national capital, Delhi.

The NHRC felt that if the contents of the newspaper report are true it raises serious issues of violation of human rights. The Commission has asked Chief Secretary, Haryana to look into the allegation contained in the newspaper report and to submit his comments within 2 weeks.

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