Cab driver’s kids heard woman’s cries for help
MENTALLY ILL VICTIM Police say victim suffers from memory loss but gave them a clue that helped them locate suspect’s house, accused Kamal nabbed after doortodoor search
On Thursday afternoon, as cab driver Kamal allegedly raped a 38-year-old woman inside his bedroom, his three kids were sitting huddled in fear outside.
Aged between five and eight years, the children knew from the woman’s loud cries that she was being brutalised by their father. But none of them could muster courage to raise an alarm.
“Kamal would terrorise his wife and children. When he walked into his house with the woman that afternoon, he warned his children against knocking on his door or informing anyone,” an investigator said.
The police, however, are unlikely to use the children as witnesses. “We do not want to make it traumatic for the family of the accused. We already have a watertight case against Kamal,” said an investigator.
Kamal’s wife, who works at a mall in NCR, was away at work when the 45-year-old man brought the woman, who suffers from a medical condition that impairs her ability to remember things, home on the pretext of helping her get a job. “Kamal’s wife told us that she already suspected him of having extramarital affairs. She has refused to support him either financially or legally during the case,” said the investigator.
Kamal, who had attached his cab with Uber, was off-duty when he came across the woman at Karkardooma Court. The woman was desperate for a job and Kamal offered to help her find one as a domestic help.
Police said he used his WagonR car to take the woman to his Ghaziabad home where he raped, sodomised and beat her before dumping her outside the court. “The brutality had left the woman in such pain that she first decided to visit a hospital instead of calling the police. The doctors treating her knew that it was a case of sexual assault. They alerted us,” said another officer.
The brutality had left the woman in such pain that she first decided to visit a hospital instead of calling the police. The doctors at the hospital alerted us.
When police began interacting with the woman on Thursday, they found it challenging because the woman was “men- tally weak” and was troubled by loss of memory. When she couldn’t recollect anything, the police got her examined at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) and counselled by experts.
“She remembered that she was taken on a 30-minute drive in a white car before being sexually abused. We did not even know if it was a personal car or a commercial one. We began checking CCTV footages within two kilometres on all possible routes that could be taken from the court,” said Nupur Prasad, DCP (Shahdara).
The police calculated the distance that could be travelled in 30 minutes by a car. They helped her recollect the sequence of events by taking names of all localities within a distance that could be travelled in 30 minutes. She remembered being told about ‘Gokal Dham Society’.
The DCP immediately formed 10 teams to look for the locality. The teams checked all neighbourhoods in east Delhi that could have any connection to the words, ‘Gokal’ and ‘Dham’.
“We then realised that a person could even reach Noida and Ghaziabad in 30 minutes. So, we focused our attention on neighbourhoods there. We worked through the night, before we finally tracked down the society located near Hindon river in Ghaziabad,” said the DCP.
As the police began a door-todoor search for the owner of ‘white car’, the victim who was accompanying them, was able to recollect the design of the house’s entrance.
When the police finally got to the suspect’s house, he was nowhere to be seen. “She remembered the children. Our women officers spoke to the children and they confirmed the assault,” said another police officer.
The police then waited for Kamal to return. “When he did, the woman recognised her attacker immediately. Kamal too confessed,” said an officer .
The victim is currently back with her husband, a rickshaw puller and police said they will keep a watch to ensure she is not harassed by him.