Muslim BJP worker wasn't raped, says medical report

RANCHI: A Muslim BJP worker who had accused 12 persons of gang rape in Chanho village of Ranchi district approached the party's state office for help on Wednesday after police gave a clean chit to all the twelve persons she named in an FIR lodged by her on Tuesday. Police also said that the woman's medical report said she hadn't been raped and indicated that she had not had sexual intercourse recently.

The woman on Tuesday said that she was raped by political rivals as she had tried to stop their 'nefarious activities' in the area. Some reports quoted her as saying that she was raped because she was supporting Narendra Modi in the ongoing elections.

Ranchi SSP Prabhat Kumar said investigation against all 12 accused in the FIR is still in progress. "All the accused appeared before the rural SP in Mandar police station to claim that they were innocent and would continue cooperating in investigations. They were freed on a personal release bond from the police station," he said. Kumar told TOI that since the medical report about any recent sexual intercourse was negative, police have decided to look deeper into other aspects of the forensic test, call records and evidences collected from the alleged site of crime to reach to any conclusion.

Expressing shock over the 'premature' inference of police and their decision to release all the accused on PR bond, the woman approached the BJP state office and pleaded for help. "No woman would say that she was molested to harass someone, be it politically-motivated or at family level. My call records will provide sufficient evidence to show that why I approached the police on Monday night when the criminals had barged into my home," she said.

While BJP accused local administration of playing to the hands of its political masters, the survivor has called for a fair forensic investigation of the clothes and other material seized from the crime site. "She has been a firebrand BJP leader in Chanho and there is no doubt that she is being targeted," BJP state spokesperson Pradeep Sinha said. "Why is this case being treated in such a way that the accused were released on PR bond even before the forensic reports came," he argued.