Himachal Pradesh: Girl who alleged rape withdraws statement

SHIMLA: A 19-year-old girl has backtracked from a rape complaint while recording her statement before the magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC.
The girl, who hails from Haryana, is studying in Shimla. She was allegedly "dragged into a car" on Sunday night, before being "assaulted", but her medical report didn't support her charges.
Interestingly, the development comes at a time when opposition Congress is raking up the issue and is demanding dismissal of chief minister Jai Ram Thakur-led government for failing to improve the law and order situation.
According to the highly placed sources, the girl, on Monday, denied all the statements made in the complaint lodged at Dhalli police station. She said that on Sunday, she had gone to Lakkar Bazar police station only to get the number of "Gudiya helpline" and not to lodge the complaint of a possible stalking by a person. She also refuted the earlier allegation of being kidnapped in a car before rape as claimed by her in the FIR.
Based on her complaint an FIR under sections 376 (rape), 354A (Sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment), 366 (Kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, etc) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation; if threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, etc) of the IPC was registered at Dhalli police station on Monday.
On Tuesday, on the direction of the chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, DGP SR Mardi had constituted an eight-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case while a magisterial probe was ordered to be conducted by the additional district magistrate (Law and Order) Shimla.
Sources said that the girl has stated before the magistrate that nothing had happened with her and she had lodged the false complaint. When police showed her the footage of CCTV cameras from four locations, she admitted to have gone towards the school at Bhattakuffar voluntarily at night around 9.15pm from Dhalli tunnel.
Sources said that though the girl has backtracked, police are continuing with investigation.