GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday expressed support for Assam resident Indira Devi, alias Jenny, in her decades-old paternity dispute involving former Uttarakhand minister Harak Singh Rawat, describing the alleged treatment she faced as “extremely wrong and reprehensible”.In a post on X, Sarma said he had met Jenny and assured her of his support in her fight for justice.“Yesterday I met Jenny, a resident of Assam. What a man named Harak Singh Rawat from Uttarakhand did to her is extremely wrong and reprehensible. No one should have to suffer the kind of cruelty she endured. I stand firmly with her in this fight for justice,” Sarma wrote.Jenny has demanded a fresh DNA test to establish the paternity of her son and secure his legal entitlement to his father’s name.The ‘Jenny episode’ is a decades-old political controversy in Uttarakhand that first surfaced in 2003. Jenny had given birth to a child at a government hospital in Dehradun in June 2003 and had claimed that Rawat was the child’s father.The then Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari had ordered a CBI inquiry into the matter.A DNA test conducted by the CBI at the time found that the child’s DNA did not match that of Harak Singh Rawat, following which the leader received a clean chit.In an exclusive conversation with ANI on Saturday (November 7), Jenny alleged that she was taken to Rawat’s residence in Yamuna Colony in 2002 by one of his party workers when she was 16 years old.She claimed that she stayed at his house for around one and a half to two months.Accusing the Congress leader, she alleged, “This is from back in 2002. In 2002, in Yamuna Colony, I used to work at an STD booth. From that STD booth, one of his party workers took me to Harak Singh Rawat’s house in Yamuna Colony. I stayed there for about one and a half to two months.When I went there, I was only 16 years old. Harak Singh Rawat said, ‘Where to send her… leave her here at my house.’ So I stayed there, in his house.”She further alleged that she became pregnant and was subsequently placed in a Nari Niketan (women’s shelter) among people with mental health conditions under the pretext of providing her hostel accommodation.“After I became pregnant, in the name of a hostel, they put me among mentally unstable people in a Nari Niketan. An inquiry can be conducted to verify whether I was kept among mentally unstable people or not, alright?” she said.Stating her demands, Jenny sought punishment for the alleged sexual assault and recognition of her son’s paternity rights.“My only demand is that, for the rape committed against me, he must be punished. Second, my son must get his father’s name. Whatever the truth is, he hasn’t received it yet. So I want those rights for my son,” she added. (ANI)