The Commission had sent its team to Shivpuri after BJP MLA Narendra Birthare had alleged in the state assembly that local policemen had acted as middlemen in the open auction of 23 tribal girls in Dabarpura village of Shivpuri last December.

The state government had refuted the allegations but the truth emerged when one of the girls who was sold at the auction was recovered by her family from Nagpur.

Rukmini, the 14-year-old daughter of Babu Adivasi of Gaswani village in the same area, said she had been sold for Rs 10,000.

Acting under open patronage of the local police, the flesh traders sold poor tribal girls to far-flung places like Nagpur, Mumbai and even abroad, the girl is reported to have told the MPHRC team.

MPHRC chairman Justice Ghulab Gupta said investigations by his staff had also found substance in theallegations about policemen acting as intermediaries for the flesh traders.

``In one case, an officer of Bairad police circle was found to have acted as middleman,'' he said.

Coming close on the heels of a report by an MP assembly committee which found the local administration in Sarguja district guilty of delaying the arrest and prosecution of the killers of college girl Preeti Shrivastava, the MPHRC report on sale of girls in Gwalior and Chambal regions of the state casts a shadow over the Digvijay Singh Government.

This could prove particularly embarrassing for the ruling party in view of coming Lok Sabha elections. That Digvijay Singh is conscious of the need to do some damage control is shown by his visit to Ambikapur last Thursday to meet the family of Preeti Shrivastava -- more than eight months after the gruesome killing.

However, despite a certificate of good conduct that the government claims to have obtained from Preeti's father Ram Lakhan Shrivastava, the role of the state machinery indealing with similar crimes against women is bound to generate heat during electioneering, political observers feel.

Justice Ghulab Gupta said the Commission had taken note of the sordid state of affairs revealed in the House panel report which went to Ambikapur to investigate allegations of the victim's family that the local administration was colluding with Preeti Shrivastava's killers. ``I entirely agree with the report of the assembly committee. However, the Commission is waiting for the house to discuss the report before initiating action in the matter,'' he said.

However, institutions like the state human rights commission or the legislative committee, can at best, draw the state government's attention to the truth. They cannot force the Government to act.

This attitude of helplessness was reflected in Justice Ghulab Gupta's complaint that the state government rarely acted promptly on the Commission's recommendations. For instance, no action has been taken on the MPHRC report for 1996-97.

Infact, Justice Gupta is so peeved at the manner in which the Commission's reports are treated by the state government that he has now decided to make his reports public at the time of the submission itself in a bid to ``promote greater transparency''.