Cab driver rapes woman on Delhi-Haryana border

NEW DELHI: A 19-year-old woman was allegedly abducted from Gurgaon and gangraped by two men at an isolated spot along the Delhi-Haryana border on Saturday night, police said.

The woman, who works in a Gurgaon mall and lives in east Delhi, was dropped in Dwarka after the crime, which reinforces how unsafe the national capital and its satellite cities are for women commuting at night.

The two accused — a cab driver and his friend — were arrested on Sunday, a senior police officer said on Monday.

“She left the mall around 10.30pm and walked down to Shankar Chowk, where she took a cab contracted by a BPO to drop employees home,” the officer said.

Drivers of such private cabs pick passengers and charge a nominal fare when they aren’t on duty for the BPO they are working for, or after completing their assigned task. Many people avail themselves of this cheap service.

“The driver told the woman that he would drop her to Uttam Nagar Metro station for Rs 30. From there, she would take the Metro to east Delhi,” the officer said.

According to the woman’s statement before police, there were two more men in the cab and one of them got down near the Rajokri border, leaving her with the driver and his friend.

“The two men told us that when the other passenger got down and the woman was alone in the cab, they hatched a plan to assault her sexually,” the officer said.

The woman became suspicious when the driver took the car on a route unfamiliar to her, according to police.

She said in her complaint that she could make out from their conversation that the two men were friends. When she questioned the driver about the route, the duo told her to shut up and threatened to kill her if she talked, she alleged.

When they reached an isolated stretch along the DelhiHaryana border, the driver stopped the car and allegedly took turns with his friend to rape her, police said.

The woman told police that she was petrified and didn’t protest or shout for help as the men had threatened to kill her. After the crime, she requested them to drop her at a Metro station.

The two men agreed and dropped her on a road near Dwarka Sector 21 Metro station. It was 12.30am on Sunday and Metro services had closed by then, she said in her statement.

The woman called a few friends from Dwarka and they reported the crime to police. A police patrol took her to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where a medical examination confirmed the rape.

“Based on her statement a case of gang rape and abduction was registered at Dwarka Sector 23 police station,” Dwarka deputy commissioner of police Shibesh Singh said. The woman had noted down a couple of digits from the car’s number plate and that helped police track down the driver. Police also used CCTV footage in their investigation and zeroed in on a man who drives a car for a BPO company.

After his arrest on Sunday, the driver told police about his friend, who is an employee with a travel company. The second suspect was arrested following the driver’s lead.

THE 19YEAROLD HAD TAKEN A CAB CONTRACTED BY A BPO TILL THE METRO STATION, WHEN TWO MEN RAPED HER, LEFT HER IN DWARKA