Woman held after 'police beat me up' claim
Police said on Wednesday that a 29-year-old woman has been detained for allegedly falsely claiming she was beaten up by police officers and lost the child she was carrying as a result.
They said investigation showed that there was no evidence that the suspect, surnamed Ding, was pregnant on the day she scuffled with the police, and that she even made up a positive pregnancy report in her complaints to the government.
Ding called the police in the early hours of July 8 from an apartment building on Changde Road, Putuo District. She reported she was looking for her boyfriend but couldn't find him.
Two policemen from Changshou Road Police Station were sent to the scene and after confirming that the man she was looking for was not there, asked her to leave because her presence was disturbing residents in the building.
Her refusal to leave and rude behavior angered a policeman who warned her to calm down, police said, adding that Ding pushed the officer and ended up being pressed down to the floor. Footage showed her crying and claiming that she was pregnant.
Ding was first taken to the police station and then to Putuo District People’s Hospital for pregnancy tests.
The blood test results showed that her HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) level was significantly below the pregnancy level, which obstetricians said meant that she couldn’t have been pregnant when the blood sample was taken.
Ding was let go later that day, but with a positive pregnancy report allegedly issued by Fengyang County People’s Hospital in Anhui Province on June 28, she made several complaints to Putuo District and the city government from July 11 about “violence from the police which caused her heavy injuries and abortion.”
Putuo police said they visited the hospital and discovered the report didn’t belong to Ding but to another woman, who is an acquaintance of Ding. Police believe Ding used software to edit the original report, and put her own name on it.
Meanwhile, Ding was found to have made a scene at Changning Maternity and Infant Health Hospital in Shanghai on July 14 where she took a blood test.
The surveillance camera at the hospital’s blood test counter showed that Ding climbed over the counter, fetched her blood sample and dropped it into a garbage bin.
Police said they suspected that she intended to destroy the blood sample after realizing that it could be turned into evidence against her, showing that she couldn’t have been pregnant on July 8.
Ding was taken away by police last Friday from her residence in Baoshan District.
If convicted of libeling the police, she could face up to 10 years in jail, according to China’s Criminal Law.
Ding gave birth to a baby last December and has filed a legal case with her boyfriend against a hospital in Shanghai where she gave birth, claiming they were given the wrong baby, police said.