Nagpur woman cooks up fake gang-rape story to marry boyfriend, keeps over 1,000 cops on their toes

Nagpur: A 19-year-old woman allegedly lodged a fake police complaint of gang-rape in a bid to marry her boyfriend, keeping the Nagpur police on their toes for the entire day, officials said on Tuesday.

Over 1,000 security personnel, including Nagpur Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar and other senior officials, investigated the case here in Maharashtra on Monday after the woman lodged the complaint at Kalamna police station around 11 am, they said.

After going through the footage of more than 250 CCTVs across the city, the investigators arrived at the conclusion that she had cooked up the gang-rape story. The woman later told the police that she did it to marry her boyfriend, a senior police official said, but did not divulge on what were her exact plans.

Earlier, the woman in her police complaint alleged that she was raped by two men at an isolated area near Chikhali area.

She claimed that the two men came in a white van and asked her about the road to Butibori when she was going to attend a music class in Ramdaspeth area in the morning. The men then forcibly took her into the van and covered her face with a cloth. The abductors took her to an isolated place and allegedly raped her, the official said quoting her complaint.

Sensing the gravity of the matter, the city police immediately launched a probe.

The Kalamna police registered an offence against unidentified men under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar, Additional CP Sunil Phulari and other senior officials rushed to the Sitabuldi police station for the probe into the case.

Kumar ordered formation of 40 special teams, comprising more than 1,000 police personnel, to check the footage of CCTVs, vans in the city and to question friends of the woman, while she was sent to Mayo Hospital for a medical examination, the official said.

He said after more than six hours of hectic efforts and questioning of over 50 people, the police concluded that the woman had concocted the gang-rape story.

From the CCTV footage, it came to light that the woman alighted from a bus at the Variety square at 9.50 am, walked up to the Jhansi Rani square at 10 am, boarded an auto-rickshaw at the Anand Talkies square at 10.15 am and got down from the three-wheeler at the Mayo Hospital at 10.25 am, the official said.

She later boarded a shared auto-rickshaw and alighted at the Chikhali square at 10.54 am.

A CCTV camera installed at a petrol pump captured her walking towards the Kalamna police station at 11.04 am, the official said.

After getting the facts in hand, the police questioned the woman and asked her if she had cooked up the story. The woman told the police that she did it to marry her boyfriend, he said.