Responding to this, Phillipe Boudin, director of The Comite Contre l'esclavage Moderne (CCEM) told The Indian Express that there was no substance to the Indian Government's claim. He said that there was no doctor's report from September 6 to ascertain what sexual injuries Lalita had received since she had not been examined by a gynaecologist until September 8.

Boudin said that on Sunday, September 5, when the Paris police took Lalita in, she was taken to a hospital for an ``X-ray of her hand to determine her age,'' which was put at 17. She was then transferred to the care of the police department that looksafter the interests of minors.

On Monday September 6, while at the Convent of St Joseph of Cluny, a doctor from the emergency service, SOS Medicin, was called because Lalita had become very restless. He gave her an injection of valium to calm her down. It was in the early hours of Wednesday, September 8, that Lalita jumped off the 6-m-high wall of the convent. It was then that she was taken to the Hospital Cochin where her wounds were discovered.

Earlier today, in a press statement CCEM said that the Indian Embassy's accusations blaming French authorities and the CCEM for the sexual injuries that Lalita Oraon has suffered, were ``absurd and defamatory.'' CCEM said that the Embassy's statements were not believable since the person responsible was an employee of the Embassy and was hiding behind diplomatic immunity.

In a strongly worded statement, CCEM said that the Indian Embassy in Paris was irresponsible to make the accusations that Lalita received the injuries to her genitalia after she was taken intocustody by the police. The CCEM stressed that Lalita had spoken freely in Hindi through Indian nuns whom she trusts. It said that Bernard Debre had repeatedly said that the sexual injuries Lalita received could not be accidental or self-inflicted. In the statement, CCEM said that Lalita's employer claimed complete ignorance of the affair and was using diplomatic immunity to avoid having to give a full explanation to the judicial authority in charge of the inquiry.

It said that CCEM does not accept that the Government of India's position demands that it acts swiftly to shed light on this ignoble act of ``torture and barbarism.''