The Tribune, January 5, 2003

Draupadi abduction case: mother shattered

Karnal, January 4
Even though the Haryana police constable Suraj Mal, has been convicted and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 in the much-publicised Karnal Draupadi abduction case of July 8, 1995, the girl’s mother, Chandrakala, is a shattered woman. She has been yearning for the truth about the whereabout of her daughter, whose abduction had caused a political flutter, alleging involvement of former Congress minister Jai Prakash Gupta, now MLA. CBI Special Judge M.M. Sharma in Ambala had convicted and sentenced the cop yesterday.

The distraught mother, who lives at Bansogate, here today charged the CBI with failure to establish where her daughter was at present. “Whether she is alive or dead? If she is no more how was she murdered and where her body was?’’ she posed this questions while talking to reporters here. Draupadi, then 18 and working as a receptionist in the Karnal District Congress Committee office here, was abducted on July 8, 1995. The CBI on directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had investigated the case. Meanwhile, Mr Jai Prakash Gupta, who faced much mud sliging by his political rivals then, over the disappearance of Draupadi, heaved a sigh of relief at the CBI court’s verdict. UNI