Police in Ghaziabad held a press conference to say the rape case was a made up story.
An alleged gangrape in Ghaziabad has turned out to be a case of the woman lying to frame the men as they have a running dispute over property, police claimed. She is likely to face action.
“She was with two of her friends for the two days — the duration for which she'd alleged she'd been kidnapped and raped by five men,” said Praveen Kumar, UP's regional police chief, on Thursday.
The case gained prominence and the woman, a resident of Delhi, was hospitalised on Wednesday after Delhi Commission for chief Swati Maliwal tweeted that the 36-year-old was found wrapped in a jute bag, with her hands and legs tied, and an iron rod inserted in her private parts.
Police had arrested four of the five men named, filed a case, but mentioned the property dispute angle then too.
Doctors at Delhi's GTB Hospital later denied that she had any internal injury.
Police said mobile signal tracking showed that one of her friends had switched off his phone right at the spot where she was found, near Ashram Road that connects Ghaziabad with Delhi.
She had said she was kidnapped when waiting for a bus for Delhi after attending a birthday party in Ghaziabad. Her brother had dropped her off at the bus stand, she had said, from where five men in a car dragged her into it and raped her in captivity.
“The complaint was all a conspiracy hatched to file a rape case on the five men,” the police officer said.
Police have detained three of her associates.
“Evidence has also been found that one of them gave money to a person through PayTM to give more publicity to the rape case,” the officer added. That friend already has three criminal cases registered against him, he added.
“We have recovered the car in which she went with her friends and stayed with them for two days,” he further claimed.
On Wednesday, when she was found, she was first taken to a government hospital in Ghaziabad; then asked to move to Meerut; “but she refused to undergo medical examination at both the places”.
Upon her insistence, she was admitted to GTB Hospital in Delhi, police said.
There was no immediate reaction from the victim's side or by Swati Maliwal after the police claimed the rape case was made up by the woman.