Noida gangrape: Fingerprints found 'useless'

NOIDA: The fingerprints of all the 11 accused charged for the gangrape of a business school student on January 5, have been found to be "smudged with excessive ink", according to Lucknow forensic facility.
And, as if that was not bad enough, it is understood that even the fingerprints lifted from the Wagon R car, in which the woman was gang raped, have been found to be blurred.
While many would be likely to look at both these acts of omission or commission as perhaps a deliberate ploy to protect the accused, a Noida police official dismissed it as "just an error in the amount of ink used." But, with the prints from the car blurred, there would seem to be 22 sets of prints which have been found to be of no value.
"This means," said Noida criminal lawyer, SP Chowdhary, "that there has best been serious negligence in lifting the prints. And, just in case the victim declines to depose, the accused may walk free."
Asked about this, a concerned Noida police official said, "Well, these prints were not up to mark. But, it is not such a big thing. We are going to have the 11 accused finger printed in front of a magistrate, next Tuesday."
He did not reply when asked how they could again get hold of the prints from the car, which have been found to be blurred. Or, how the concerned forensic experts could err 11 times in a row in recording the finger prints.
Noida senior superintendent of police, Navin Arora, could not be contacted for comment. But, another concerned police officer said, "There is no question of this having been done deliberately. I do not know about the quality of the prints lifted from the car."
But, there are those who seriously doubt the concern of the police in getting convictions.
Following Delhi University student���s gangrape on January 4, the Noida police had registered a case of rape only after the Delhi police nabbed the main accused and he confessed to the police.