Australian link to gang-rape claims Witnesses report mob dragged women from their cars into fields, writes AARTI BETIGERI.
'Police told us to keep quiet to save our honour.'
Alleged rape victim Damaged cars at Murthal town after Jat protests turned violent on   February 23.
Right, underwear strewn across fields near Sukhdev Dhaba. Photos: Getty Images Allegations of gang-rape and a police cover-up are being argued over in an Indian courtroom in a case with a mysterious Australian connection. 
At issue is what actually happened on the night of   February 21 this year, when it is alleged a violent mob dragged several women from cars stuck in a huge traffic jam and either molested or gang-raped them in nearby fields.
In an anonymous statement published online, a writer claiming to be an Indian-Australian woman described being raped by a gang.
The Jat community, a caste native to the northern state of Haryana, had been agitating for inclusion in India's affirmative action system of job quotas for certain castes.
Over the weekend of   February 20, protesters blockaded the main highway between Delhi and Chandigarh.
On   February 22, several witnesses reported seeing mobs storm through cars stuck in the traffic jam on the highway at about 2am, forcing travellers from vehicles and setting cars and shops on fire near the town of Murthal.
Many said they saw women being dragged into nearby fields, and heard screaming. Scraps of clothing were later found scattered across the road, yet at first no victims took their complaint to police.
State police said they had investigated and found no rapes had taken place that night, a conclusion echoed by the national women's ministry.
Nevertheless, allegations the police had failed to protect commuters flared.
On its initiative, the High Court of Haryana and Punjab in Chandigarh ordered a fresh police investigation, and the latest hearings were held last week.
Court-appointed lawyer Anupam Gupta told the court he had heard solid testimony from the main witness, the owner of a roadside restaurant.He had described to investigators how several distraught and near- naked women had arrived at his establishment late that night. Mr Gupta told of claims that police officers turned up soon afterwards and whisked the women away.
The anonymous "Australian" statement was posted last month in Punjabi on the California-based website Punjab Outlook, then translated and widely shared on Facebook.
The statement's author identified herself as an Indian who settled in Australia 15 years ago and had an Australian-born daughter. She, with her husband, daughter, sister-in-law, niece and niece's husband, had flown into Delhi on   February 21 and immediately got into a taxi to Chandigarh, a four to five-hour drive.
"I woke up to a loud bang and someone had broken the window of our car," the statement said.
"The mob was giving abuses [sic] and diesel was thrown on cars.
"My husband who was sitting with the driver had an injury on his forehead from a sword attack.
"I and my niece escaped from the right door and my sis-in-law and daughter escaped from the back door.
"In the screams and chaos, we didn't know where we were running and whose hands we were holding."
The statement went on to describe somehow getting pulled into nearby fields by rioters.
"Only sleeves were left of my kameez [tunic]. I don't know if they were five or 50 [assailants]. I don't remember if I walked to that house or I gained consciousness in that house.
"My body had strange clothes and villagers were searching for my relatives."The statement went on to describe the woman reuniting with her family members at a roadside food stall.
"My sister-in-law was so scared that she refused to recognise us and didn't let anyone come near her."
It then stated that "police told us to keep quiet to save our honour and made arrangements for our travel".
While the statement mentioned the first names of family members, no other identifying details were given.
The author's identity remained a secret closely guarded by state police, and the head of the police investigating committee, Mamta Singh, told Fairfax she had interrogated the woman on the phone and found inconsistencies in her statement.
"I had a talk with them, but I'm not sure whether they are victims or not," said Ms Singh. "They are denying it all, they said they never travelled by road to Punjab but instead got a flight."
Only a handful of women had come forward to say they were victims: one, a woman who said she recognised the attackers as men from her own village, and another a Delhi college student who had been travelling with her father.
In an earlier hearing, the court was shown a video of another woman who said her daughter had been taken. None had been identified.
Being the victim of rape, particularly gang rape, is a source of great shame for women in India, and most prefer to keep it a secret, even if that means the perpetrators get away with it.
A handful of witnesses had also come forward, but many had indicated they feared reprisals from Jats, a powerful community in Haryana.
One key witness said he had later been identified and chased on the road, and received threatening calls.
"I spoke to a person who was stuck in the jam, his family was travelling from Punjab to Delhi," said Navjot Sidhu, the editor-in-chief of local television news channel STV Haryana News, which was the first to report the "Australian" statement.
"He said he saw women being dragged out of cars, people being harassed, cars being burnt, and bad things happening to women and children," she said. "But it was so dark nobody would go and see.
"Everybody was trying to save their own lives."
Haryana is a wealthy, agriculture- based state, dominated by the Jat community, which is notable for their physicality and strength. Many Indian wrestlers, sportsmen and strongmen hail from this region.
While they are wealthy and politically powerful, they have long agitated to be included in government quotas for jobs, as agriculture is no longer viable for them.
A report by an independent committee released on   May 14 said 30 people were killed and 200 injured in   February's violence, that $4billion worth of damage had been done and some police officers were sympathetic to rioters.