Blind rape victim gives contradictory accounts, police say

Ghaziabad : A blind girl who claimed she was raped by a stranger here has been giving different statements about her background to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and her relatives have been asked to come and clarify matters, police said on Sunday.

Sahibabad police officer Rajesh Mishra said the 17-year-old reported that she was raped in her house in Lajpat Nagar on Wednesday night but the incident came to light on Friday night when the girl was found crying in a park.

A tea vendor came to her help, taking her to the Sahibabad police station, which sent her to the CWC for counselling and shelter.

The girl told counsellor Shalini Singh that a boy who came on a motorcycle barged into her rented room and raped her twice and fled after bolting the door from outside.

The house owner, who heard her cries, opened the door and freed her. However, he evicted her when she told him what had happened but retained her belongings, saying they will be adjusted against the three month rent due from her, the girl said.

According to the girl, she belonged to a village in Deoria in Uttar Pradesh, had lost her mother in her childhood and was forced to leave her village with her father due to an enmity there.

They moved to Mumbai where she became blind after an adverse reaction to a medicine. Her father then moved to Ghaziabad so that he could get her treated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, but died of heart attack about 10 days ago.

However, to the other CWC counselor Archana Mishra, the girl said that she came here from Gorakhpur since her elder sister lived here but she didn’t know her address and her phone was found switched off.

“After her different statements before the CWC counsellors, we phoned her relatives in Deoria to come to Ghaziabad. We will proceed further only after they reach here. Till then the girl will remain in CWC,” said the police officer.

IANS