Police resort to baton-charge on CPI(M) march, 5 injured

Various women and social outfits led by Karat gathered here today morning to take out the march and wanted to gherao the Rohtak Deputy Commissioner (DC) office at mini secretariat to register their protest.

However, they were intercepted by police personnel outside the Congress office at Ambedkar Chowk where barricades were installed to stop the protesting women from going ahead.

Seeing the barricades, the protesters got enraged and started removing them, prompting the police to use canes on them to stop them.

Five persons were injured in the ensued clashes and were rushed to a hospital, police sources said.

"We were taking out a protest march peacefully against rising incidents of crime against women in the state and wanted to submit a memorandum to the Rohtak DC, the police not only intercepted us forcefully but also caused injuries to our five activists by using cane on them," said Karat.

"Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is not making serious efforts to curb the rising incidents of crime. Despite surfacing of so many incidents of rape within a month, adequate steps are not being taken for the security and safety of the women especially in the rustic area," the CPI(M) leader alleged.

Jagmati Sangwan, vice president of Akhil Bhartiya Janwadi Mahila Samiti, said the state government was deliberately not providing police security to rape victims and their families while the accused were trying to build pressure upon the victim's family for compromise.

She demanded the state government to make security cover available to the rape victims and their kin so that they could feel themselves secure.

Later, Rohtak SDM Jagdish Sharma and Tehsildar Pramod Chahal reached out to the protesters and received their memorandum.