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New twist in the Noida rape case

 The Greater Noida incident on Thursday in which four women were allegedly raped and a man was shot dead has taken a turn- and a twist.  A preliminary medical examination has found no sign of sexual violation in any of the four alleged victims.
The medical officer in charge of the tests said these were his findings prima facie.  For further confirmation, the Forensic Laboratory in the capital of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, will conduct more detailed investigations.  The clothes and tissue samples of the victims have already been sent, the officer said.
The medial officer said there was no trace of any foreign DNA in the medical tests of the women. He also said his team could find no injuries that might result in the course of a sexual assault. Normally, spermatozoa are usually present for 72 hours after the act. That was not found in any one of the vaginal swabs.
The case is also now murkier for the fact that one of the women who accused her neighbors a role in the crime has retracted her statement. She has earlier said three of the six suspects could be her neighbors. Following the allegations, the police had raided the neighbor's house and taken into custody five men. After interrogation, they were however released. There were rumors earlier that there was a property dispute between the neighbors and the victims. 
The three-member police investigation team that had arrived rather late on the scene on Thursday has now grown into 50. These include Special Operation Group, Special Task Force, Anti-Extortion  team, Crime Branch and District Police. The burgeoning of the team is at the instance of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, who had recently announced crime rate in UP is already down after his taking charge.
If the Lucknow forensic laboratory confirms the negative preliminary tests, it would drastically change the complexion of the case. It would, for example, raise the question why the man who is alleged to have been killed by the assailants for protesting against rape was shot in the first place.
So far the police have not released the eyewitness accounts of the other men who were tied up and allegedly beaten by the criminals.  The police jeep driver who arrived at the scene though said he found the hands and knees of the women bound. But it now turns out that, according to him, when the station house officer asked the women if they had been raped, they refused to answer yes, or no. That leaves the field wide open, another police official said. 
 

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