New Delhi:
The story of a young national-level volleyball player who lost her left leg after being pushed out of a moving train stunned India. Arunima Sinha was then offered more than two lakhs as compensation by the government, along with a job in the Railways.
Her family said she would prefer a career that would keep her linked to sports - so the UP government then asked if she'd like to be offered a job in the Sports Directorate or the Sports College.
Now, officials investigating Ms Sinha's attack say her story doesn't check out. In an interview on April 13, Arunima had said, "I kept screaming, but it was a superfast train. It was moving at a very high speed. My screams were not loud enough. People could have come to my rescue only if they heard me.''
The police now say on the night of April 10, the Padmawat Express stopped at the Chinaiti station, barely 250 metres from where Arunima was found. Naturally, the train could not have picked up a speed of more than 8 to 10 kilometres per hour. ''If she was thrown off a train, then she would have fallen next to it. She would not have fallen some 16 feet away at a 90 degree angle,'' added A. K. Jain, Additional Director General, Railway Police.
In her interviews to the media, Arunima had also said she was on her way to take part in a CISF Recruitment Drive in Noida. But The police say she did not appear prepared for a planned trip.
The police say there are several other contradictions, such as:
- Why would she produce a super-fast train ticket, when she travelled on an express train?
- Arunima claims the robbers were trying to snatch her gold chain. But the men who found her say the chain was recovered from her purse
''Whatever she is saying, her family, her brother-in-law are saying, much of it is not correct,'' A. K. Jain, Additional Director General, Railway Police told NDTV.
Arunima, who is being treated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, has hit back. "I feel that they are trying to save themselves and they do not want to see me in a job. Politics is being played with me," she said.
''Whatever I have said is true. It's their problem if they don't find it true. If I gave them the chain, why would I lose my leg? Ask the nurses in Bareilly. When I came there, they took the chain off my neck. And not just that, my purse, money and ATM card was kept in a packet with the nurse. They said they would hand it over to my guardians," Arunima added.
"They are trying to cover up their incompetence," Arunima's mother Gyanbala Sinha said.
The police are now waiting for the analysis of her cell phone records.