'Gangrape' case at Hyderabad's Gandhi Hospital turns out to be fake

Hyderabad, Aug 19 : The alleged gangrape of two women at the government-run Gandhi Hospital here turned out by fake as one of the two sisters who was missing was traced by police and revealed that there was no sexual assault.

Police registered a case three days ago on a complaint by a woman, who alleged that a hospital employee and his friend raped her when she was in hospital with her elder sister and brother-in-law, who was admitted for treatment of liver and kidney-related complications.

A lab technician, a security guard and some other suspects had been picked up for questioning.

The 38-year-old complainant had alleged that the lab technician confined her to a room for four days, drugged and raped her. She claimed that his friend also sexually assaulted her. The complainant alleged that her elder sister, 40, was also raped by the lab technician and that she went missing.

The complaint of the alleged gang rape at Telangana's largest state-run healthcare facility had sent shock waves. A case was registered at Chilkalguda police station and the investigators scanned the footage of CCTV cameras in the hospital and surroundings to trace the missing woman.

The police could finally trace her on Thursday and she revealed that there was no sexual assault. The police found that two sisters from Mahabubnagar district regularly drink toddy. As they could not get the toddy for five days while in Gandhi Hospital, they began to show withdrawal symptoms. One of them went out of hospital on August 11 enquiring for toddy and lost her way.

The other woman, who remained in hospital, developed friendship with a security guard and they had consensual sex.

As her elder sister had not returned to the hospital, she cooked up the rape story and lodged a complaint with the police.

The missing woman was finally traced in Himayatnagar area on Thursday.

A police officer said the medical examination also revealed that there was no rape.

The two sisters, along with the patient, had come to Gandhi Hospital on August 5. The man was discharged on August 13. He returned home with his son but his wife and sister-in-law were found missing. The patient's son returned to the hospital in search of his mother and aunt. He found his aunt, who told him that they were raped in the hospital.

Telangana State Women Commission chairperson Sunitha Laxma Reddy had also visited the hospital on Tuesday and spoke to Superintendent Dr Raja Rao.

The hospital authorities had also formed a committee to probe the incident. The lab technician was suspended pending inquiry.

The superintendent maintained that there was no scope for such an incident to have occurred in the hospital premises, as 189 out of 209 CCTV cameras were functioning and it has adequate number of security guards and a police outpost.