Jalgaon Incident Never Happened, Says Home Minister Anil Deshmukh After Probe

A day after the BJP alleged on the floor of Maharashtra legislative Assembly that women were stripped and made to dance at a government hostel in Jalgaon, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has denied the incident today.

“No such incident took place in Jalgaon. It is a false complaint. The committee of six senior women officers from different departments, have given their probe findings today,” he said.

The alleged incident had sent shockwaves across the country. BJP had claimed that some women living in the government hostel of Jalgaon were forcibly stripped and made to dance. Those who did not do so were beaten up by the police, the BJP had claimed.

Deshmukh today said that the police too had probed the matter. He said that the six-member committee had visited the hospital in Jalgaon and had taken information from 41 inmates there. “As per the information given by those present, there we come to know that there was an entertainment programme on February 20. Women were singing, dancing, reciting poetry. During garba dance a woman felt inconvenience by her garba gown and removed it. There were only women present in the room at that time,” he said.

He also added that the woman who had made such a complaint was, in fact, mentally unstable. He claimed that several complaints about her had already been received.