Girl in UP alleges gang-rape in moving car

A girl in Uttar Pradesh said she was kidnapped from a busy market in Etawah and brutally gang-raped in a moving car. However, police said Friday that her complaint was suspect, prompting the opposition BJP to say that police response was dismaying.

In the incident that came to light late Thursday, the teen-aged girl said she was returning from the local branch of the Punjab National Bank at Naurangabad when four youths dragged her into a waiting car. Before she could raise an alarm, she was driven away and later raped.

She said her struggle caused the man who was driving the car to lose control near Katkhera village on the outskirts of Etawah, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's home town. The driver rammed into another car. While two of the alleged rapists fled the scene, the other two youths and the victim were admitted to a local hospital for treatment of accident injuries.

The two youngsters slipped out of the hospital, claiming they were fine and were going for further first aid and treatment from their family doctors, police said.

The girl, who had lost consciousness, told the doctors that she had been raped by the four. Her mother also alleged that the girl had several injuries and bite marks on her body.

Police, however, claimed that the whole incident was suspicious.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Kanpur R.K. Chaturvedi said the matter was being probed. "The local police have informed me that the girl had gone on her own with the boys and was apparently drunk," Chaturvedi told IANS.

He added that the girl was being taken before a magistrate for recording her statement.

"If the girl says she was raped, we will take subsequent action and arrest the culprits based on this statement before the magistrate," he said.

The girl's family alleged that police were not serious about pursuing the case. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said police inaction was dismaying.

Condemning the police attitude, he said the police were trying to scuttle the matter instead of doing their job.