30-Year-Old Bengaluru Woman Jumps From Moving Rapido After Driver Gropes Her, Snatches Her Phone
A 30-year-old female architect, who wished to remain anonymous, said she had to jump from a moving Rapido bike to protect herself from a taxi driver who sexually harassed her and attempted to take her to the wrong destination.
Series of events
On the night of April 21, the woman booked a Rapido bike to Indiranagar. At around 11.10 pm, the driver picked her up and got hold of her phone on the pretext of checking the OTP.?
Thereafter, he took the route towards Doddaballapura rather than moving towards?Indiranagar.
In spite of the woman's queries about the driver travelling in the wrong direction, he kept mum and continued to drive. As a result, the woman had to snatch her phone from the driver, whom she then realised was drunk.
Reacting to this, the man snatched the phone back and, at the same time, sped up his bike. The rider also groped her. she grabbed her phone and called a friend in Indiranagar for help.
The woman jumped off the speeding bike close to the BMS Institute of Technology and Management, injuring herself while the biker escaped with her phone. Notably, CCTV cameras caught the act of her jumping from the bike.
Guards and passersby aided her in calling a friend in her hometown and another friend in Indiranagar.?
Cops refused to help initially
The woman's friend rushed from Indiranagar to the JB Nagar police station to report to the cops that his friend was in peril and that her phone was switched off.?
However, the officers refused to honour his request to trace the woman's location, citing that it was a "girlfriend and boyfriend problem".
"I had to wait for 20 minutes to get a response after speaking to a police sub-inspector and making a phone call to 112. Only after that, they spoke to the Yelahanka police. We rushed to the spot, went to the Yelahanka police, and filed a complaint," he told Deccan Herald.
Driver booked by the police
Though the accused enlisted a Honda Activa with Rapido, he came to pick up the woman on a Bajaj Pulsar. Moreover, the taxi aggregator has not reached out to her till date.
A senior police officer said the accused was arrested and charged with sexual harassment, kidnapping, assault, or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty and causing hurt by acts endangering life or personal safety of others.
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