Hyderabad, April 18 A young woman made a false claim of sexual assault after falling off a running MMTS train in Hyderabad while making an Instagram reel, railway police said.
Three weeks after the incident, the police investigations revealed that the 23-year-old had cooked up a false story to mislead the investigation.
After scanning the footage from 300 CCTV cameras and questioning about 120 suspects, the railway police found that there was no sexual assault on her.
According to Superintendent of Police, Railways, Chandana Deepti, the young woman confessed that she accidentally fell from the train while shooting a reel on her mobile phone.
The young woman was found injured near a railway bridge in Kompally on the night of March 23. Passersby had alerted police and shifted her to a hospital.
She claimed that she jumped off the running train to save herself from a man who attempted to sexually assault her.
The victim, who hails from the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh and is employed in a private company in Medchal on the outskirts of Hyderabad, had told police that she boarded the Telapur-Medchal MMTS train in ladies’ coach at Secunderabad Railway Station to return to Medchal after getting her mobile phone repaired at a shop in Secunderabad.
She claimed that when she was alone in the coach, a youth came near her and asked for sexual favours. When she refused, he tried to assault her sexually. She resisted and to escape the assault, jumped out of the running train.
Railway police had registered a case and had taken up an investigation. Special teams were formed to scan the CCTV cameras at all stations along the 28-km route between Secunderabad and Medchal to identify the suspect.
The woman was initially admitted to Gandhi Hospital in Secunderabad and was later shifted to a private hospital.
The incident had triggered an uproar. Opposition parties and women’s groups had condemned the incident, and their leaders had visited the hospital to call on the ‘victim’.
Union Minister for Coal and Mines and Secunderabad MP Kishan Reddy had also visited the private hospital to meet the woman. Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay also spoke to family members of the woman and assured them of all support.
The opposition leaders had voiced concern over the lack of proper security for women travelling alone, especially at night.
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