The news of a 28-year-old woman being stabbed in the parking lot of Mahalaxmi Racecourse spread panic in central Mumbai on Thursday night. However, after the Tardeo police found discrepancies in the woman’s statement, she confessed to have stabbed herself following an argument with her boyfriend. She admitted to fabricating the assault allegation to evade an attempt to suicide charge.
The Tardeo police said the woman, whose identity has been withheld, was admitted to Nair Hospital in Agripada at around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday with a stab wound below her left collarbone. The victim told the doctors that an unidentified man stabbed her in the Racecourse’s parking lot while she was waiting for her boyfriend.
The hospital then informed the Tardeo police that a victim of a serious assault had been admitted. A police team then visited the hospital to make inquiries.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone III) Pravin Padwal said, “The woman said in her initial statement that she was waiting for her boyfriend in the parking lot when an unidentified man came up to her, stabbed her and ran away. Her boyfriend reached the spot, saw her on the ground, bleeding and disoriented, and rushed her to the hospital. We immediately registered a case of attempt to murder against unidentified persons under the Indian Penal Code and initiated inquiries.”
Holes in claim
By then, much to the chagrin of the police, messages about a woman being attacked on the streets and how the city was unsafe for women started circulating on WhatsApp.
The first doubt on the woman’s statement was cast an hour after her statement was recorded, when doctors informed the police that her injury seemed to be self-inflicted. The doctors said a victim of a stab attack wound would sustain injuries at 90 degrees to the body.
When the police tracked the location of the woman and her boyfriend using Call Data Records, they revealed that the two were together in the parking lot for a long time. This discredited the woman’s version that her boyfriend showed up after the attack. When the police confronted the boyfriend, he admitted the truth.
Mr. Padwal said, “The woman and her boyfriend stay in the same locality and have been in a relationship for nearly two years. They wanted to get married but his parents were opposed to it as the woman is several years older to him. She is a divorcee and has a son from her previous marriage, who stays with her ex-husband. On Thursday evening, he came in a friend’s taxi to the parking lot to meet her. She gave him an ultimatum, asking him to take a call on their marriage by Friday. When he told her that they should wait for some more time, the woman became upset and stabbed herself using a knife she was carrying in her purse.”
The woman said she carried the knife in her purse as she was in the habit of eating fruits through the day. The police are verifying this claim. The knife has not yet been recovered. The woman is now out of danger, and is recovering at the hospital.
The police will soon decide on booking her on charge of attempt to suicide and misleading authorities with false information.
