Communication and IT minister Sachin Pilot was arrested on Sunday by the Uttar Pradesh police under section 151. He was on his way to meet the farmers of Bhatta-Parsaul village in regard to the farmers' stir against land acquisition by the Uttar Pradesh government.
Pilot had earlier on Sunday visited Dasna Jail to meet the Noida farmers. He said that the incident, in regard to the way the Uttar Pradesh government addressed the farmers' stir, needs to be probed.
"The NCW report and reports by several other agencies indicate that there have been several issues that need to be addressed. More than the atrocities it is the land grabbing by the state government that needs to be addressed. The state government has made a real estate business out of all this and not just these two, other villages may have had to suffer," he said.
The National Commission for Women (NCW) acting Chairperson Yasmeen Abrar on Saturday alleged that crime against women in Uttar Pradesh is very high and demanded an enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the violence and alleged police atrocities in Bhatta and Parsaul villages of Greater Noida.
Yasmeen repeated that atrocities were committed by the state government in the twin villages, just a day after a NCW report claimed that many women in the two villages were stripped naked and molested by policemen following the violent agitation by farmers on May 7.
Backing Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's claims of many people being killed and their bodies burnt in Bhatta and Parsaul, Yasmeen said, "NCW is worried that the crime against women in highest in Uttar Pradesh. There has been a case in Farrukhabad of rape and murder. We request a CBI enquiry into Bhatta-Parsaul so that evidence is not destroyed and to bring out the truth. We request for security and food to women of the villages. Women police personnel should be there to look after the women."
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), however, hit out at the National Commission for Women (NCW) for their claim that women were raped by Uttar Pradesh policemen in Bhatta and Parsaul.
BSP on Saturday issued a statement saying that the NCW chief was perhaps trying to show her loyalty to the Congress by making false allegations of molestation of women in Bhatta and Parsaul villages.
