For kin of driver, disgrace is difficult to take
NEW DELHI: For family members of Ramesh Kumar, the 40-yearold driver arrested for allegedly raping a woman in his taxi, seeing police personnel and the media together at their doorstep was something they had never experienced.
But it was Kumar’s crime that forced his wife and three children — two daughters and a son — to remain locked inside their house and avoid the media and their neighbours. For them, he was the sole breadwinner of their family. A chargesheet against him will be filed in 20 days.
Kumar was arrested near Dwarka’s Rajapuri, almost 10 kilometres away from his home in Najafgarh’s Nangli Sakrawati village on Thursday night. His family’s wait ended with a call made by an officer from the Dwarka North police station who informed his wife that he was arrested for raping a woman.
“Kumar’s wife did not believe the caller’s claim and insisted on talking to her husband. She became worried when Kumar talked to her and confessed. The last time his family interacted with anybody was late on Thursday night,” said Mahesh Singh, a neighbour.
Another neighbour told HT that Kumar’s crime had shaken his two daughters, especially the elder one who studies in Class 9 at a local government school. The girls felt so ashamed of their father that they have refused to go to school. “His elder daughter is so enraged that she does not open the door for anybody. She keeps telling everybody that nobody by the name of Ramesh Kumar lived in their house. We have heard them crying inside,” said a man living in the adjacent house.
A 30-year-old man said that Kumar had an aggressive attitude and often fought with his neighbours over petty issues.