Investigating officials said this would make their case against the accused more robust, as the statement would be considered a 'strong evidence' in court, which the victim herself cannot retract.

Patan collector and district magistrate, Vinod R Rao, who is heading the magisterial inquiry into the incident on the orders of the state government, said, "The victim's statement was recorded by a judicial magistrate in the Patan Civil Hospital on Thursday afternoon. The sealed statement is presently in the court's custody."

Though the contents of the victim's new testimony before the magistrate were not made public, it is being presumed that the statement is a repetition of her earlier FIR filed at the Patan city police station on Monday. The presumption, according to police is based on the fact that the victim's statement under section 164 of CrPC has been recorded in just three days after she lodged an FIR.

The victim had accused her college professors — Ashwin Parmar, Manish Parmar, Mahendra Prajapati, Kiran Patel, Suresh Patel and Atul Patel —of gangraping her several times between September last year and January, 25, this year. All the six were arrested the same day the complaint was filed and are presently in a seven-day police remand. "The statement recorded on Thursday, as per law, will be considered a strong evidence against the accused and even the victim herself cannot retract from what she has told the magistrate," Rao added.

The Patan gangrape happens to be a rare instance in which a victim's statement has been recorded under Section 164 of CrPC (this provision is generally used for the accused, who are likely to do a flip-flop in courts, claiming that their earlier statements in police custody were extorted forcibly). Rao, when asked on those lines, said, "We foreboded that the victim or her parents might be influenced to retract from their statements. This statement will however, leave no scope for that."

Investigating officer in charge, SP of Patan, Raghavendra Vatsa endorsed this by saying, that the victim's statement under Section 164 of CrPC will make their case against the accused stronger."