PTI

Mumbai, Jan 14: The city police on Friday said they were finding it difficult to substantiate the South African model's claim that she had been drugged at a suburban Vile Parle hotel late last month before her assailants picked her up and raped her for two days.

"The woman's claim of having been drugged does not find any substantiation so far," Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy told PTI in Mumbai.

Roy said he was yet to see the forensic report, and therefore it would be improper for him to comment on its findings. Meanwhile, a senior police official said hotel records indicated that the woman consumed a couple of Vodkas, beer and cocktails in her brief stay at the pub.

"The quantity of alcohol she consumed, and the variety she ingested, is sufficient to immobilise even a strongly built person, while the model was a short-structured person," he said.

"The model claims she was drugged on December 27 and raped for two days. She lodged a complaint on December 29 and her blood samples may have been taken after that. In such a condition, the possibility of tracing the drug in the blood is very difficult," another police official said.

"Also, there was a heavy dose of alcohol in her blood and possibility of the body system flushing out the drug along with the alcohol cannot be ruled out," he added.

The South African model, a Bollywood aspirant, had gone to meet the owner of Hotel Bawa International in Vile Parle on December 27, when she claimed she was drugged through a spiked drink by two persons at the hotel's pub 'Avalon'.

The woman claimed that the two suspects, Suresh Krishnani and Sunil Morpani, allegedly kept her in illegal confinement for two days in several hotels in Kalyan in neighbouring Thane district and raped her repeatedly.

Police sources said the woman's claim that she was administered a drink spiked with drug, 'may not be true,' and that she could have been lured in an inebriated condition.

The model's lawyer, Falguni Bramhabhatt, admitted it was difficult to find out the presence of the drug in the blood since a long time had passed between consumption and medical tests. Bramhabhatt, however, rejected the police claim that the victim was drunk.