CHENNAI: Confounded by the lack of any external signs of sexual assault, the city police officials probing the alleged case of abduction and rape of a teenage engineering college student by a man posing as a policeman have decided to seek further medical tests to ascertain the facts.
The 19-year-old girl, who had gone to the beach off East Coast Road with her boyfriend on Monday evening, was allegedly abducted by a person claiming to be a policeman under the pretext of taking her to the local police station. The girl claimed in her complaint that the man raped her.
Sources said a preliminary assessment carried out by a doctor did not reveal any signs of external injury or forced intercourse. Doctors have now suggested an ultrasound scan to look for internal injuries, if any, as there is a possibility of absence of external injuries if the victim failed to resist owing to fear.
“We have not come to any conclusion. We cannot rule out the possibility of rape because her dress was not crumpled and or that there are no visible external injuries. We need to scientifically find out whether rape was committed or not before proceeding further,” a senior police official said.
“If this turns out to be a false complaint, we need to find out what prompted the girl and boy to file it,” he said.
The team led by Neelankarai Inspector Baskar that is probing the case has sent the girl with a woman police official to undergo further tests.
A senior police official privy to the investigation said the boy was likely to be referred for DNA testing. “It would be done only after getting legal opinion,” the official said. The girl could be referred for a psychological test after getting necessary legal opinion.
The police team took the girl to all lanes leading to the beach from ECR to identify the exact location where she claimed the incident had occurred. However, she couldn’t pinpoint it, but said she recalled a series of road intersections in the vicinity, as seen near a slum off ECR near Akkarai. The exact location is yet to be determined.
The local police questioned a number of men in the area of the alleged crime, all in their late 20s and early 30s, as per the description by the girl.
Sources said suspicion has fallen on two persons — including one reportedly attached to a neighbouring district police station — who have not been able to convincingly explain their whereabouts at the time of the alleged crime.