The auto
driver allegedly drove the woman around for nearly 50 minutes on a 16-kilometre
stretch of road before stopping at an isolated spot and molesting her.
A
22-year-old nurse was molested, assaulted and robbed of her mobile phone near
Sant Nirankari Samagam Ground in north Delhi’s Burari by the driver of an
auto-rickshaw that she had boarded outside a hospital in central Delhi on
Tuesday night, police said.
The auto driver allegedly drove the woman
around for nearly 50 minutes on a 16-kilometre stretch of road before stopping
at an isolated spot and molesting her. The woman later somehow managed to
escape from the vehicle, but not before sustaining injuries while resisting the
alleged sexual assault.
Vijayanta Arya,
deputy
commissioner of police (Northwest), said the woman was treated for her injuries and was out of danger.
commissioner of police (Northwest), said the woman was treated for her injuries and was out of danger.
Arya said that “crucial information”
provided by the woman helped the police arrest the driver Thursday morning and
recover her cellphone and the auto-rickshaw that was used in the crime.
The suspect, identified as Bhanu Singh,
45, lives with his wife and three children in Babarpur and has no previous
criminal cases against him, police said.
The woman
works as a nurse at a private hospital in central Delhi’s Rajendra Place. The
DCP said she had finished her shift on Tuesday night and come out of the
hospital to flag down an auto-rickshaw around 10pm. “She stopped an auto, told
the driver she wanted to go to northeast Delhi and hopped in,” she said.
Over the next 50 minutes, Bhanu drove her
via Filmistan and Timarpur before taking the Ring Road. “Until then, the woman
did not suspect anything as the route taken by the driver was familiar to her,”
said another investigator.
But when the auto-rickshaw approached the
Ring Road, Bhanu, allegedly, suddenly took a different road and started driving
towards an isolated stretch of the road next to the Sant Nirankari Samagam
Ground, close to Burari. “When the woman questioned the change in route, the
driver stopped the auto-rickshaw, approached the passengers’ seat and began
molesting the woman,” the investigator said, adding that the police have not
been able to ascertain if he intended to rape her.
“The woman fought back and was hit and
injured by the driver. Later, she managed to push him away, jump out of the
vehicle and run. The suspect, however, had robbed her mobile phone by then,”
said the investigator.
Even as the suspect drove away, the woman
sought help from a passerby to make a call to the police control room, said the
DCP. “Also, a police picket was about 200 metres from that spot. She met the
policeman present at the picket and told them about the sexual assault,” said
the DCP.
The woman was taken to a hospital for
treatment, and a case of molestation and causing hurt during robbery was
registered at Mukherjee Nagar police station. The DCP said six teams were
formed and the suspect nabbed from Shah Alam Bandh.
While the test identification parade (TIP)
of the suspect is yet to be carried out, the police said they are sure Bhanu
was the man involved in the crime. “The victim’s phone has been recovered from
him. He has also confessed to the crime,” said the DCP.
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