Women 'more than' molested in Bhatta Parsaul: Govt

Stopping short of alleging rapes in Bhatta Parsaul village in Mayawati-ruled Uttar Pradesh in May, the government on Thursday said an inquiry panel has found that women were not only molested and stripped but the police personnel did "even more than that."

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi who had visited the village during the farmers' agitation had alleged that women were raped and a heap of ash with bones was found at the site.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on August 11, Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath had said a National Commission for Women team visited the place and "no specific case of rape has been confirmed by the inquiry committee."

However, correcting the August 11 reply, Tirath said on Thursday that the NCW team that went into the charges of alleged atrocities including rape, stated in its preliminary report that serious crime was committed on women.

"Police personnel broke open houses, looted valuables, money, ransacked houses, tore women's clothes and put them in a state of nakedness, badly molested and committed even more than that," she said quoting the NCW report.

The final report is, however, awaited.