The Punjab and Haryana high court took cognisance of news reports alleging that women had been dragged out of their vehicles on National Highway 1 (NH1) and raped, during the Jat riots that broke out in Haryana over caste-based reservations, reported IANS.

The high court’s justice Naresh Kumar Sanghi said the high court could not sit as a “mute spectator” to the reported incidents and that these needed to be probed by a “premier investigation agency”. The case has been referred to the court of the acting Chief Justice for further orders.

The Haryana government however said that the news reports were false and baseless.

Several media, including the Tribune, Huffington Post, India Today and an English daily called Daily Sikh Updates reported the alleged incidents of rape yesterday.

According to the Tribune, at least 10 women were sexually assaulted after vehicles with women passengers were reportedly stopped and set on fire by 30-odd goons on NH1 near Murthal, in the wee hours of Monday morning. The women were allegedly dragged out to the nearby fields and raped, and later given clothes and blankets by nearby villagers, according to “eyewitnesses” cited in the report.

The report cites Amrik Sukhdev dhaba owner Amrik Singh as alleging that he learnt about the incidents at 3am when some travellers heard the victims wailing. The Tribune report also cites other sources: >“Shaken up by the incident, village elders Hari Krishan of Kurad and Zile Singh of Hassanpur said they didn’t want to talk about the incident as “the police are sure to shield the criminals and nobody, not even the locals, are safe.” Jai Bhagwan, who too runs a dhaba on the highway, said four young women took refuge inside a water tank near his dhaba.”