Latest India gang-rape claim false

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DELHI, India, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Allegations of another gang-rape in India, reeling from a Dec. 16 group sex-assault that left a woman dead and people outraged, were lies, police said Monday.

Investigators said they determined a Moga woman's account of her being dragged from a bus in Chandigarh and released in Punjab after being injected with a drug and gang-raped in a moving car was false, the Hindustan Times reported.

Authorities said they learned Gurveer Kaur, 24, made the claims to frame her boyfriend's wife, whose accusation that Kaur had attempted kill her by poking her with HIV-infected needles landed her in prison. Kaur was out on bail when she made the rape allegation, the Times said.

Police have charged Kaur, her boyfriend, Sunil Kumar, and two other men who allegedly helped her carry out the scheme. All but one of the alleged accomplices were in custody.

"All four suspects, including Sunil Kumar who is in jail, now are suspects in the fake gang-rape case," inspector general of police Nirmal Singh Dhillon said.

In New Delhi, a trial began Monday for five men accused of gang-raping and killing a woman in a December case that brought international attention, and condemnation about how women are treated in India, and led to discussions in the country on sexual violence toward women.

"We can only try to change how women in this country are portrayed and treated," Meena Gudnarati, 27, told bikyamasr.com.

In the December incident, the men allegedly attacked the woman and her male companion on a private bus, robbed them and threw them onto the roadside. The woman was flown to Singapore for treatment. She died about two weeks later.

Her companion survived.

The Supreme Court agreed to take up a request Tuesday from one of the defendants to move the trial outside of Delhi, bikyamasr.com said.

"The sentiment has gone into the root of each home in Delhi by which even the judicial officers and the state are not spared ... ," the petition, filed through his advocate, said.

Because of all the reporting and statements made by political and judicial figures, "[the] judiciary is under pressure to work against the petitioner," the document said.

A sixth suspect, thought to be too young to be tried as an adult, faces proceedings in a juvenile court.