Hyderabad, May 9: The CRPF personnel and policemen accused of raping Lakshmi, a tribal woman at Narayanpur, in Nalgonda district last February, have been given a clean chit.

The DNA fingerprint test results have proved negative and all the accused have been exonerated. Home Minister T Devender Goud told an all-party meeting convened to review atrocities on Dalits and tribals here that the analysis of sperm collected from the clothes of the victim did not match with those of the accused.

Instead, it tallied with with her husband’s. This clearly showed that the lambada woman was not gangraped as was alleged but had normal intercourse with her husband, he said.

Reacting to the objections raised by the representatives of the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) parties that there were several loopholes in the DNA test, the Home Minister agreed to constitute a House committee to look into the veracity of the DNA test and whether there were any lapses in the investigation. He said he would write to Assembly Speaker K Pratibha Bharati in this regard.

Admitting that incidents of caste discrimination and atrocities on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were on the rise in the State, Goud said there were 1,805 cases of atrocities in 1998, 1,897 in 1999 and 1,912 in 2000 but only 27 people were convicted during this period. He said more than 800 villages have been identified where caste discrimination was rampant.

He said the Justice Punnaiah Committee constituted to look into atrocities on Dalits and tribals was expected to submit its report in a week or two.

An action plan would be chalked out after the submission of the report, he said. It was suggested at the all-party meeting to amend Section 14 and 17 of the Atrocities on SCs and STs (prevention) Act meant for speedy disposal of cases by setting up special courts and transfer of powers to deal with the cases from Deputy Superintendent of Police to inspectors.

The special courts would be set up at Nellore, Kurnool, Cuddapah, Medak, Karimnagar, Krishna, Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar and Guntur districts where there was high incidence of caste discrimination, the Home Minister said.