Morni Hills ‘gangrape’ case: No guest house in Morni hills registered, probe begins

A 21-year-old Chandigarh woman was allegedly raped by 40 men over four days, at Lovely Guest House, at Kaimbwala village in Morni hills, 32 km from Panchkula. This private guest house on Friday was not found registered with any of the government departments.

The Panchkula police have already announced that they have started the verification of guest houses in the area and to find out whether these have the requisite approval to carry out commercial activities.

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“I have got it checked from the department. There is no tourism permission required to run the guest house [in Morni]. The directorate or the Haryana tourism corporation doesn’t give any permission in such cases. We are not even the regulatory authority to check the premises of these guest houses,” Vikas Yadav, Managing Director, Haryana Tourism told Chandigarh Newsline on Saturday.

Anil Kumar Hooda, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Haryana, told Chandigarh Newsline that the forest department too has no role to issue any registration certificate for the guest house or any construction coming up in Morni. “Other than the forests in Morni, there is a residential area as well…it [issuing any kind of registration certificate for guest house] is not under our control,” said Hooda.

Asked about the registration authority, Panchkula Deputy Commissioner (DC) Mukul Kumar said he was getting the documents of the guest houses checked. “I have asked for the report. We will not allow any illegal guest house to operate in the area. Police too have started the verification of documents of all such premises operating in Morni,” said the DC.

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At least five guest houses were fully functional at Kaimbwala village while two more were under construction. The Panchkula district administration was now probing if domestic water and electricity connections were being used at these guest houses. “Domestic water and electricity connections cannot be used on premises meant for commercial activities. We are in the process of getting all these things checked,” a senior officer told Newsline.

“So far, during our investigation, we have not come across any guest house, which is running legally in the area,” said Panchkula DCP Rajender Kumar Meena. “We are getting all the guest houses in the area verified. We will take strict action against all the guest houses that do not have proper documents.”

“We shall also check these guest houses’ electricity connections on Monday. If any violation is detected, suitable action will be taken,” Sanjeev Kumar Siwach, Executive Engineer (XEN), Panchkula of Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) said .