BENGALURU: A 24-year-old college student who boarded a cab went through a terrifying ordeal after two men forced their way into the vehicle and attempted to rape her in east Bengaluru in the wee hours of Monday. The miscreants escaped only after locals came to her aid.
According to the complaint filed by the girl, a resident of Kammanahalli and an undergraduate student of a private college, the incident happened between 2am and 3am.
The girl, who is from a northeastern state, wanted to bring a friend from Whitefield to her house. She booked a cab from an aggregator around 2am. After the vehicle arrived, she walked out of her house, and as soon as she got into the car and closed the door, two strangers tried to sneak into the rear seat where she was sitting. The shocked girl immediately objected to the duo getting into the car. The driver also did not know the two and got into an argument with them.
Sensing danger, the girl got down from the car and started running towards her house. One of the strangers ran behind her and caught her by the neck from behind. When she tried to get away from his clutches, he hit her and pushed her to the ground. He tried to strip her, she said in the complaint.
The attacker touched her inappropriately and sexually harassed her, while the driver got busy fighting the other intruder. The girl’s cries drew residents nearby, who rushed to her help. The duo, however, ran away from the spot.
The girl called helpline 112 and a Hoysala patrol vehicle rushed to the spot and attended to her complaint. As she had an exam in the morning, she approached police after writing the test.
Acting on her complaint, cops registered a case under BNS Sections 74 (assault or use of criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 75 (sexual harassment).
According to the girl, the strangers were in their late 20s or 30s. “The area doesn’t have CCTV cameras, so we are checking footage from surrounding places,” a police officer said.
NOT THE FIRST TIME
A 26-year-old software company employee from Nagaland, who was returning home along with her colleagues in an office cab, was stripped by a machete-carrying youth around 3.30am in Aug 2023 near Lingarajpuram. The youth stopped the car and sexually harassed the woman. When she started running, he stripped her, and she entered a house to save herself from the attacker. The house owner rescued her but was brutally hit on his hand. The 18-year-old accused was arrested after a few months.
