Man shot dead, 4 women of his family allegedly raped by armed men on highway near UP's Greater Noida
A preliminary medical investigation of the four women alleged to have been raped in Greater Noida's Jewar, Gautam Budh Nagar, has not confirmed the offence yet, the district chief medical officer Dr Anurag Bhargava announced on Friday after the crime was held up as an example of the Yogi Adityanath's failure to deliver on his promise to improve law and order.
A family of four men and four women travelling in a car from Jewar in Greater Noida to Bulandshahr alleged that they were looted by six armed men and the women were gang-raped at gunpoint. One relative was shot, reportedly when he tried to save the women.
With the Gautam Budh Nagar district police chief Love Kumar by his side, Mr Bhargava spoke at a press conference in some detail about the findings of the medical examination of the rape survivors. He said the doctors had found no vaginal injury or presence of semen.
Their clothes and tissue samples will be sent to the forensic laboratory in Lucknow for further tests, results of which will be out in two to three weeks.
"No proof of rape has yet been found in the medical reports of the Jewar gang-rape victims. But we are investigating the matter and will soon catch the culprits," SSP Kumar said in a press briefing in Noida.
Their clothes and tissue samples are being sent to the forensic laboratory in Lucknow for further tests to ascertain if any foreign DNA shows up. The results will take about two-three weeks to come, the doctor said.
The district administration's emphasis on the rape allegation came against the backdrop of the opposition citing the robbery and gang-rape as an instance of the Uttar Pradesh government's failure to maintain law and order.
"This is true that there is no law and order in Uttar Pradesh. A state of fear has developed in peoples' minds since this government has come to power," leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said.
The six men, who robbed and killed the relative of the women when he intervened, are yet to be arrested. Mr Kumar said they would be caught soon.
"We are working to track such professional gangs. The victims earlier said that the gang-rape incident was a part of the personal revenge, but later they denied the claims. We are working on the same," he said.
In 2013, parliament had overhauled its rape laws that stood in the way of getting justice for rape survivors. One key change was that forced oral sex, and not just penile-vaginal penetration also would be treated as rape.