Mamata smells conspiracy in Kolkata rape case

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that a billowing controversy over the rape of a Kolkata woman and alleged police insensitivity to the incident is a conspiracy fabricated to malign her government.

The claim comes a day after Kolkata Police said that even though something "traumatic" did happen to the lady who alleged rape at gunpoint in a moving car in Kolkata on the night of Feb 5, they have come across "several inconsistencies" in her account.

The 37-year-old mother of two, belonging to the Anglo-Indian community, had said on television Wednesday that she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint inside a moving car between after she was given a lift in the vehicle from Park Street that night.

The woman and her relatives also have alleged that the police misbehaved with her and mocked her for going to a night club, a charge denied by the police who said it was "incorrect" to say there was police and government inaction.

"The entire incident has been concocted with the motive of maligning the government. Everything will be revealed in the course of the investigation. The police will answer the rest of your questions," said Banerjee, while leaving the state secretariat on Thursday.

Senior police officials were quoted by a newspaper as saying that they were hopeful of cracking the case by Friday morning, thanks to "a vital lead" that has emerged from the site of the meeting between the victim and her alleged assailants.

"It is apparent that something had happened that night. But the evidence suggests prima facie that the persons who have been accused are not involved. We are yet to ascertain what exactly happened that night," joint commissioner of police (crime) Damayanti Sen told the daily.

Earlier the woman had identified her assailants as Sharafat Ali, Azhar Ali, Lubi Gidwani and their driver Salman. Among them Sharafat Ali is the one who raped her while others held her and showed her firearms, the woman had told the police.

Based on the woman´s complaint, two men were detained by the Kolkata police, one of whom was reportedly identified by the victim as her alleged rapist.

While the woman identified her assailants, saying she had tracked them down on social networking site Facebook, the man she alleges offered her the lift has been out of the country, according to his family.

Kolkata Police Commissioner R K Pachnanda also said said that preliminary examination of the mobile phone records of the detained men indicate that they were not present at Park Street at the time the woman claims she was raped.

Police also said that while the woman alleged that she was thrown out of the vehicle by the accused at about 3:30 am at a crossing and then took a taxi home, it has now emerged that she first went to a friend´s place who subsequently dropped her home.

Investigators also noted that while the incident happened on the night of Feb 5, the woman first went to the police station on Feb 9 and said she was traumatised and in shock.