A 24-year-old woman who said she was gang-raped on early Saturday morning (23 September) has taken back her complaint hours later saying she had lodged a false complaint out of anger, police said.

Earlier, the woman had alleged that she was waiting for a cab in Noida, near the Indian capital New Delhi, when a car stopped near her and two men on the pretext of asking for directions abducted her, gang-raped her in the moving car and then dumped her, police said.

A case of gang rape was registered on the basis of the woman's complaint, the police added.

After 18 hours of police investigation, the woman gave a written statement to the police requesting withdrawal of her complaint. "I was upset over some issue and hence gave false information to police," she said, the Times of India newspaper reported.

Noida police Public Relations Officer Manish Saxena said in a statement that the woman gave in writing that she had lodged a false complaint, but the police are investigating all aspects to bring out the truth.

Saxena said the woman may have gone back on her complaint out of fear.

The investigating officer had sent the woman for medical examination but she went home without the medical checkup, the police claimed.

The woman was again brought to the hospital for medical examination but she refused to undergo the examination and gave the doctors in writing that she did not want herself examined, the police added.

The woman told the police that she had not been sexually assaulted, Saxena added.