Another woman raped in Delhi taxi, driver arrested

 

New Delhi, 11 Apr 2015: Barely four months after the Uber rape, a 32-year-old woman was beaten up and sexually assaulted by a cabbie inside a blackand-yellow taxi in Dwarka after she had hailed the cab on a shared basis from a Metro station on Thursday night. 

 

The woman, who passed out after the attack around 9.30pm, was rescued as police chased the vehicle and arrested the driver. A passerby had heard her scream and alerted the cops. The accused, Ramesh Kumar, 40, was found to have spent time in jail in a road rage case and had been involved in a fatal accident. 

 

The assault again raises questions about the safety of public transport in the city. 

 

While the government had cracked down on appbased and radio cabs follow ing the Uber case, here was a ’kali-peeli’ taxi driven by a known offender who was breaking rules by picking up multiple passengers. The survivor works as a guard at a mall in Rajouri Garden, west Delhi. The attack took place after the other passenger got off near Rajapuri Chowk in Dwarka. 

 

The incident was reported between 9.30 and 9.45pm inside a Maruti Eeco cab (DL 1T 7516). The woman had boarded the cab from the Dwarka Mor Metro station and was going home to Madhu Vihar, Dwarka, where she lives with her children. Her husband left her two years ago. 

 

The survivor said Kumar started driving slowly, claiming he had run out of gas immediately after the other passenger got off. He then stopped the vehicle at a desolate spot on the pretext of checking the CNG level. 

 

"He climbed in through the boot and suddenly jumped on to the rear seat where I was sitting, and tried to force himself on me," she said. 

 

When she resisted, Kumar punched her face and tore her clothes. He also threatened to kill her if she continued to resist. Cops said he inserted his fingers in her private parts, bit her all over on her shoulder and neck, and hit her when she tried to push him away. He threw away her mobile phone when she calling the police. 

 

Hearing her screams, a passerby decided to intervene. As the man approached the vehicle, Kumar climbed into the driver’s seat and sped off with the woman. The passerby then stopped a pa trolling PCR van and informed them about the incident. The area SHO, Ashok Kumar Meena, also patrolling nearby, was called in and the two vehicles started chasing the taxi. 

 

"All this while, the driver kept threatening to kill me if I tried to raise an alarm to draw the attention of policemen," the woman said, add ing that she soon passed out. 

 

The PCR van and the SHO’s Gypsy caught up with the cab and blocked its way near the Madhu Vihar bus stop, forcing the driver to stop. He was nabbed while trying to run away. The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment and her family as well as her employer informed about the incident.She had started working with the security firm barely 15 days ago. 

 

The woman’s statement was recorded in the presence of woman counsellors of an NGO and a magistrate on Friday. 

 

DCP (south west) R A Sanjeev said, "We have registered a case under sections of rape (376 IPC), criminal intimidation (506 IPC), causing hurt (323 IPC) and illegal confinement (342) and arrested the driver from the spot."