At Lovely Guest House at Kaimbwala village in Morni Hills on Friday. (Express photo/Jaipal Singh)
LOVELY GUEST House, where a 21-year-old Chandigarh woman was allegedly raped by 40 men over four days, is located just outside Kaimbwala village, 32 km from Panchkula.
On Friday, as police investigators swarmed the area, people living in the vicinity told CNL that they did not notice any unusual activity around the guest house.
“It was only on Friday early morning when the police arrived that we learnt that something was wrong,” said one resident who did not wish to be named.
The guest house has a CCTV camera at the gate. The police have seized the DVRs.
Forensic teams seized a large number of empty liquor bottles, used condoms and empty sachets of Viagra tablets from the spot, said police officials. “There was a visible attempt to destroy the evidence by burning the condoms and tablet sachets,” said one of the investigating officers.
The double-storeyed building of the guest house is not much different from the clutch of four other residential buildings converted into guest houses around it, all located on a 150 m stretch of a secluded road leading from the village, all offering AC and non-AC rooms, with restaurants catering breakfast, lunch, dinner.
There are multiple signboards on this stretch of road announcing room tariffs – Rs 500 for the day, Rs 1,000 for a night.
Lovely has six rooms, of which one, nearest to the gate, has been converted into a shop selling biscuits, soft drinks and chips. The first floor has only one room. The guest house had become operational only for the last six or seven months, said local residents.
“We don’t know who were the people coming to Lovely. It is rented out by the owners to the people who operate the guest house. We don’t even know who are the people running it,” said an employee of New Nancy Guest House.
Next door to Lovely is Shivalik Guest House. Pawan Kumar, who runs the place, said: “We hardly get anyone in these guest houses who stay overnight. It’s mostly young couples who come, spend a few hours and then leave.” He added, “We take the identity proofs of our clients. It depends on the guests as to how much time they want to spend at our accommodation.”
With the Haryana government’s Tikar Tal resort just 11 kms away, the guest houses have a steady flow of clientele. Two more guest houses are under construction and coming up fast.
None are registered with the state tourism department. Pawan Kumar was candid in admitting that his guest house was not registered.
The Panchkula district administration has now begun a probe to check how these guest houses were functioning and whether these premises had valid approvals to run commercial activities.
Panchkula DCP Rajender Meena told a press conference that police patrolling in the area has been intensified. He added that the police would also check if the guest houses were functioning with valid approvals.