(Trigger warning: Mentions of rape, child abuse.)
Days after a minor girl's uncle filed a First Information Report (FIR) on 7 September alleging that she had been raped by five men in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad, the police and the girl's parents said that no such incident had taken place.
The girl's uncle had filed a complaint after CCTV footage of her purportedly walking naked on the road surfaced.
The girl's parents, however, recently gave a statement to the police denying any claims of her being sexually assaulted.
Moradabad Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Hemant Kutiyal confirmed that the girl went through a medical check-up and no evidence of sexual assault was found.
Kutiyal said, "Her parents said that their daughter is having mental problems since childhood and no such incident has happened."
The girl's parents as well as others living in the village told the police that the girl's uncle had filed a false complaint against the five men for "political reasons."
The girl's family filed a complaint against her uncle and a case was registered under Sections 500 (defamation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).
Contents of the FIR
The minor's uncle had registered the FIR on behalf of his niece, whom he alleged was raped while she was on her way back from a local fair in her village in Bhojpur on 1 September.
He had claimed that she was ambushed by five men who came on two motorcycles and abducted her, took her to a forest area and allegedly raped her.
He also said that a man in the vicinity, who was irrigating his field, tried to rescue the girl upon hearing her cries, after which the girl walked back home naked.
After the footage of the girl purportedly walking naked on a road went viral, a senior police official directed the local police to file an FIR on 7 September, one week after the incident allegedly took place.
Based on the complaint of her uncle, an FIR was filed under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
One of the accused persons was also taken into judicial custody on the basis of an eyewitness' account, SSP Kutiyal said.
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