Chandigarh: Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday observed that rapes did take place in Murthal during the February 2016 Jat agitation in Haryana and asked the state police's special investigation team to find the culprits and instil confidence in the public.

The court observed that two witnesses, one of them a taxi driver, had said that women were dragged out of their vehicles, which indicated that rapes had taken place and also asked the CBI counsel if the agency was ready to probe the case.

The court also asked the SIT to file an affidavit before the trial court that rape charges hadn't been dropped and were still under investigation.

The Haryana Govt had denied the incident in the past 10 months and said there was no direct evidence to prove the incident.

The high court observed in an open court that three forms of evidence directly point to the fact that the rapes happened namely, the undergarments recovered from the site, the semen samples from the site and the two witnesses who saw people dragging girls out from cars and other private vehicles.

According to a report in the Times of India, Police had accused five alleged rioters of rape, but the charge was dropped as their blood did not match semen samples from the undergarments.

The observations came after senior advocate and amicus curiae in the case, Anupam Gupta, accused the SIT of working in lack of good faith and in an unprofessional manner, the report further added.