LUCKNOW, June 25: The report of a committee which probed into alleged atrocities on farmers by the police at Babrala hamlet in Badaun district has come as slap in the face for Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.The SP leader had charged that dozens of farmers of the hamlet, whose land had reportedly been usurped by the management of a private fertiliser factory, had been beaten up by the police and thrown in jails, while their women were raped by the police personnel.The six-member, Government-appointed committee, has now noted that no such rape took place. In its eight-page report, the committee says that whatever happened at Babrala was an outcome of ``the vested interests of an influential political leader (read Mulayam), nonchalance of the mill management and intrusion of anti-social elements among the agitationists''.The incident dates back to the time Babrala residents launched a sustained agitation at the main gate of a fertiliser factory in their hamlet to demand permanent employment of their wards in lieu of their land. The agitation took a violent turn when the protestors stopped the supply of raw materials to the factory and the police had to intervene.There were reports that the police had let loose a reign of terror in the village and ruthlessly beaten up residents, including women and children. They were later lodged in the district jail.The SP had picked on the incident to embarrass the Mayawati Government. Mulayam had visited the village himself and virtually held a chaupal with the farmers on the prison premises.The SP leader had demanded that action be taken against the guilty. The committee set up by Mayawati, however, indicts local leaders of a particular party (read Mulayam's Samajwadi Party ) for inciting the violence.Panel moots jobs for the displacedThe committee that went into the Babrala violence has said those who gave up their land for construction of the factory be given permanent jobs as promised by the company.The committee, in its report submitted yesterday, said backing out of the factory management ``in connivance with some influential land owners, who belonged to the Samajwadi Party'' appears to be the genesis of trouble on June one.
