Four days after the gangrape of a 13-year-old girl shocked the State Capital, a red-faced Lucknow Police today given a clean chit to three youths, all belonging to affluent families, who had been detained since Wednesday night on suspicion of having committed the crime.With this, things are back to square one, with the police clueless about the identity of the actual culprits who abducted the girl in a Santro car on Monday evening and raped her.Meanwhile, the girl’s family has claimed that they have been receiving threats from unidentified persons to withdraw their complaint.Police investigations have revealed that the youths — all in their early 20s — who had been detained on suspicion were in fact at their respective homes when the incident occurred. The goof-up now has the trio’s families crying harassment and defamation at the police. The youths — Deepak Dwivedi, son of Faizabad’s Basic Shiksha Adhikari, Sanjay Aggrawal, son of a senior Engineer with LOCO and Feroz, son of a senior Engineer with the Railways — were picked up by the police because they were in a silver-coloured Santro, similar to the vehicle used by the rapists. The car belongs to Dwivedi’s father.‘‘On Wednesday, we had set up a check-point in the Ashiana area from where the girl was abducted on Monday night. A Santro car with three youngsters inside was caught at the naka. All three boys were drinking beer. The girl had said one of the rapists was wearing a red-coloured T-shirt, and they were drunk. Coincidently, Feroz was also wearing a red T-shirt and lives nearby, in Anand Nagar on Jail Road. So we thought we had caught the culprits,’’ said Circle Officer (Sarojini Nagar) Mahendra Yadav.Police said from the start, the trio maintained they were innocent and were willing for a medical examination too. ‘‘The girl said the accused had been talking on mobile phones during the crime. We have analysed the youths’ cellphone records and found that they were all at their homes when they received calls on Monday evening. Feroz was the one who was under suspicion the most. But the cell ID and respective area tower records showed that he was at his house when he received two calls on his cellphone, between 6 pm and 11 pm on Monday,’’ added Yadav.Still, to be doubly sure, the police are sending the three youths for a DNA test before letting them off tomorrow.‘‘A forensic examination of their car was conducted but the team could not find anything suspicious. In a rape case, generally some hair strands break but not a single strand was found. The girl said the car had a stereo system and an installed cigarette lighter, but the seized car does not have both,” said Circle Officer (Alambagh) Shachi Ghildiyal.
