‘Many contradictions in German rape case’

An internal report prepared on the basis of some witness accounts by the Delhi police indicates there are many contradictions in a case in which a German national had alleged that an auto driver raped her on December 14 last year near the Rajendra Place Metro station. The report has also criticised the Delhi Commission for Women for not immediately sharing the information about the alleged rape either with the police or the German embassy or with other statutory authorities. The report claimed that the delay of 15 days on the part of the DCW in reporting the matter to the police was a very serious offence as it had caused an irreparable loss of vital evidence, “including the memory of the complainant and the CCTV footage”.

A highly placed source said that the report begins by reading that an information was received by the police from Lady Harding Hospital on February 20 that DCW volunteer Jasvinder Kaur had got admitted one German national for gynecology consultancy. It said that a lady officer was immediately sent to the LHMC Hospital where she collected the MLC of the German woman, an alleged rape victim, who had been staying in Nagpur since August 12 last year.

Quoting the MLC report, the police said that the German woman had come to India to work voluntarily with an NGO. She had reportedly planned three-week vacation to Delhi, Agra and Rajasthan from December 11 onwards. She is said to have landed in Delhi on December 11 and had been staying in a hotel in Patel Nagar. The report said that she had a fight with her friend at the hotel, following which she came out on a street at Patel Nagar. She is said to have lost her way and had sought help of an auto driver, who did not understand English.

“After she sat in the auto, the driver came to the back seat after 10 to 15 minutes and started raping her. She shouted for help, but there was no one on the street and there was no light either. After he raped her again, she jumped out of the auto. The driver came with his friends and started to harass her. His friends also molested her. After hearing the noise, they all ran away. Then, she was sitting on the street. An unidentified man helped her reach her hotel. She shared her story and has now come up with a complaint to lodge the FIR.” Quoting the MLC, the report said that the doctor had remarked “old torn hymen, no injury or scratch mark seen on her person, no discharge, no scratch or bite on breast”.

After collecting the MLC, the German woman gave a written complaint to the lady police officer in which she narrated the alleged rape.

The report said that since the alleged incident was more than two months old and there was an inordinate delay in lodging the complaint with the police by her, certain questions were asked to correct the chain of events and other inherent contradictions in her statement.

But the victim is said to have left the police station in a hurry, saying she would clarify certain points shortly. The complaint was reportedly kept pending for verification of facts of the alleged incident.

The report said that in order to verify the facts told by the complainant, immediate action was taken and concerned witnesses traced and examined on February 20. Quoting hotel receptionist Saurav Jindal, the police said the German national left the hotel at 11 pm. She reportedly came back to the hotel at 12 midnight in a heavily drunken state. He told the police that three Dominos boys had dropped her at the hotel. He told the investigators that it did not appear to him that she had been raped or assaulted. He told the police that one of the Domino boys had told him that he found the woman weeping and she had told him that her husband had beaten her on face.

Quoting the scooterist who had offered her help, the police said the woman had also told him that she was beaten up by her husband. He said that three boys had landed up there and two of them had dropped her to the hotel. The Domino boys had visited the hotel the very next day to find about the welfare of the German national. This statement is said to have been corroborated by one Vishnu Kanth of Etawah in UP.

The report said that the examination of the three witnesses showed certain contradictions about the alleged rape incident. During further inquiry, the police examined another hotel employee to corroborate the accounts of other witnesses. “During the course of investigation on February 26 sincere efforts were made to identify the alleged auto driver on the description provided by the complainant. But she gave in writing that she could not provide a complete description of facial features of the alleged auto driver in absence of which no portrait/sketch of the alleged accused could be prepared.”