The shocking story of kidnapping in broad daylight and sexual abuse before being left in a sugarcane field by Marie-Linley Savriacooty is now being questioned. After a few days of solidarity and shock by the public - how could individuals perpetrate such gratuitous violence in total impunity? - new statements to the police have cast doubts the alleged attack. Meanwhile, Seewosagur Manna, aka Dev, has been arrested by the police who are checking his alibi.

Last week, when the story hit the headlines, it appeared so shocking that the public could hardly believe it. For the second time since January, Marie-Linley Savriacooty had allegedly been sexually assaulted. And this time, her assailants had been even more aggressive and violent.

In her statement to the police, the victim explained that she was going to the bank in Rose-Hill when she suddenly felt someone putting his hand over her mouth. She passed out and found herself in a sugarcane field near Flacq. Her three attackers beat her, wounded her body with a cutter and finally drove a cane stem into her private parts. They allegedly abused her both physically and verbally.

Then she explained that she had been given the choice of swallowing pills or else having her throat cut. She chose to swallow more than 30 of the pills and lost consciousness? ?When I woke up, the three of them had run away. I was naked in the middle of the sugar cane field but I could crawl.? A police patrol found her lying naked on the road side and immediately took her to Flacq hospital.

After two days in an isolation ward in Flacq hospital and after undergoing surgery to remove the sugar cane stem from her body, Marie-Linley Savriacooty moved to the Darne clinic where she revealed that she is a ?wounded woman? but ?more importantly, still alive?.

<B>Noticed nothing wrong</B>

In her statement to the police, she revealed she had heard one of her attackers call another ?Dev?; the latter had replied not to use any names in front of her. This is what brought the police to arrest Dev Manna. The more so as he was allegedly involved in the previous attack on her in January. But, so far he has denied all accusations against him.

All this was taken very seriously by the police until a truck driver, Anil Goreeba ? someone who knows the alleged victim very well ? came forward to say that he had seen her walking on the road at Camp de Masque on the day of the alleged attack around 4.45 pm. His helper confirmed this to the police. They said they wondered what she was doing, walking alone there, but they had noticed nothing wrong with her. Marie Linley?s husband, Stephano Savriacooty, has told their lawyer, Jean-Claude Bibi, that he knows the driver and doesn?t think he has any reason to lie. This is how the police obtained his contact details and checked his testimony.

Similar attack</B>

But this is not the only contradiction in the alleged victim?s statement: the results of the Forensic Science Laboratory revealed that there was no chemical substance in Marie-Linley Savriacooty?s blood while she asserted she had been forced to take a lot of tablets which had made her lose consciousness.

Are the ?old demons? of Marie-Linley haunting her again? The police have realised she made a similar statement to the police concerning a similar attack in 2000. She said her former third husband, Bruno Bignoux, and two of his cousins kidnapped her in Curepipe and took her near Grand-Bassin where they abused her sexually. She said at the time that she had recognised her former husband?s voice ? just as she had for Dev Manna. They pleaded not guilty and, as the plaintiff did not appear in Court, the Director of Public Prosecutions dismissed the case.

Faced with these new elements, the police have decided to question Marie-Linley Savriacooty again. She says people are using her past to cast doubt on her allegations and she sticks to her version. The police medical officer is trying to determine whether her wounds could have been ?self-inflicted? while her fourth and current husband, Stephano Savriacooty, has asked for a psychiatrist to see his wife. He left his home yesterday to go back to his mother?s. Only time will tell who is speaking the truth?

<B>Neighbourhood saga?</B>

The conflict between the Manna and Savriacooty families goes back some time. It seems to be a neighbourhood problem in Mauripark in New-Grove where the Mannas often reproached the Savriacootys for making too much noise and holding lots of parties at their place. Since that time, the relationship between the two families has been deteriorating steadily, reaching a peak of violence on 31st January when Marie-Linley Savriacooty claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a group of men in the middle of Rose-Belle under the eyes of her husband who had himself been battered and restrained. The situation did not improve when Marie-Linley Savriacooty allegedly lost her baby in the toilets of this police station, where she was ?abused verbally by the police? Her case was even mentioned in Parliament where opposition MPs said they suspected a ?cover-up?.

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