Five neighbours of the Jewar gang-rape victims who were arrested on Thursday night by police, in the connection with the murder of a man and gang-rape of four women, were given a clean chit and released on Friday after one of the victims retracted her statement and denied their involvement in the crime.
Earlier, on Thursday evening, the woman had given a statement that she could identify three of the six accused and suspected them to be her neighbours.
She had alleged that they were involved in a property dispute with them and the whole incident was planned as part of revenge.
However, on Friday morning, the woman retracted her statement saying that she was not in her senses last day and apologised for all that she had told cops.
The Station House Officer of Jewar police station, Raj Pal Tomar, who is also supervising the investigation, said: "Through the media reports, we came to know that the victims suspect that their neighbours are behind the incident. They live near the victims' house and were involved in a property dispute with each other.
"We raided their house on Thursday night and arrested five men who were taken for interrogation by the police team. The arrests were made based on the statement given by the woman".
"But later on Friday morning, the lady denied their involvement in the incident and said that whatever she said was out of anger and frustration. All the arrested neighbours were released by the police on Friday morning. The lady has apologised for her false allegations," added Tomar.
A final statement is yet to be recorded before the magistrate on Saturday.
"The earlier statement given by the lady was based on the personal enmity. There was no involvement of the neighbours in the incident", said some locals.
Meanwhile, senior cops said that they are probing all the possible angles and soon they will nab the culprits.
"We have roped in four teams comprising as many as 50 personnel from different security agencies, such as Special Operation Group, Special Task Force, Anti-Extortion Cell, Crime Branch and District Police. Investigators are probing all angles and studying similar cases to analyse the modus operandi of such gangs" said Love Kumar, SSP, Gautam Buddh Nagar.
Kumar said that though the family denied the involvement of the neighbours, cops have not ruled out a personal enmity angle to the ambush.
A team of experts has also been deputed to make sketches of the suspects, Kumar added.