Twist in tale: Now witnesses claim Rohtak sisters were not 'molested'

In a new twist to the alleged molestation of the two Rohtak sisters in a moving bus, co-passengers have submitted affidavits to the police in support of the three youths. This could possibly scuttle the sexual harassment charges lodged by the two Haryana sisters against three youths. According to an Indian Express report, three passengers and three residents of the sisters’ village have come forward with testimonies and affidavits to support the three youths currently under arrest. One of the witnesses in her affidavit said that she had asked Kuldeep, one of the accused men, to buy a ticket for a woman, who was unwell. In her affidavit, as quoted by Times of India, she said, “The two girls were already sitting on seat No. 8 which was allotted to the ill woman. He requested the girls to vacate the seat for the sick woman and even showed the ticket to them. Then, he told the sick woman to sit on some other seat but the girls became abusive.” [caption id=“attachment_1829867” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image.[/caption] The woman said that the girls then attacked him with belts from behind and even as the man jumped out of the bus when it slowed down, the girls also followed him for some distance. “When police came, they named the other two men—Mohit and Deepak—saying they were Kuldeep’s aides despite the fact that they had nothing to do with the incident,” she reportedly said. While the Rohtak girls’ village is celebrating as Haryana chief minister said the women would be honoured for their “act of bravery” on Republic Day, new questions questions are being raised about who shot the video, the emergence of second video of the two girls kicking another boy, and now the new witnesses saying that the three men were not at fault. According to an Indian Express report, another witness Sonia Mittal reportedly stated in her affidavit that seconds before the fight between the sisters — Aarti and Pooja — and the three youths, she heard the two sisters ask another passenger for “support”. “It was clearly audible when they told her, ‘Hamara saath degi na? Bas video bana lio’ (Will you support us, just record a video). Pooja, then picked up a fight again and before the boy could react, she took out a belt from her bag and both sisters started beating him,” she was quoted by Express as saying. An earlier Express article noted that there has been no sign of the ‘pregnant woman’ to whose aid the two girls reportedly leapt, or any sign of the mysterious videographer. Meanwhile the families of the three youths, who have been arrested and remanded to custody till 6 December, have been insisting that the three boys have been “falsely implicated”. A Hindustan Times report noted that two witnesses have also given statements in connection with a month-old video, which has emerged now, showing the sisters beating up a boy in a park. Virender Dhankar and Yogeshwer said they were present at the Huda City Park in Rohtak when the incident happened. “The girls abused and tore off a boy’s clothes after he asked them why they were wasting their time in the park instead of attending college. Another girl accompanying them videographed it,” he told the police, reported Hindustan Times.