Trying to cash in on the general atmosphere of outrage over crimes against women, a 17-year-old deaf and mute girl tried to escape punishment from her parents by cooking up the story of her own rape. After keeping the city cops on their toes all day yesterday, she finally came clean and admitted that she had fabricated the story to cover up the fact that she had snuck out of home to meet her boyfriend. Her parents had registered an FIR with the Trombay Police station early last morning.

In her first statement to the police in sign language, which her mother translated, she claimed that on Wednesday, two men had dragged her into a public toilet at Sainath Nagar near her home, where one of them violated her.