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Auto driver, accomplice held for raping mentally-ill woman in Ludhiana
Accused waylaid the lost woman and took her to his friend’s house
Nine days after a 30-year-old mentally ill woman was allegedly raped by an auto-rickshaw driver and his accomplice, the police arrested the two accused on Thursday.
The accused are Rishi Raj, 37, of Bhagat Singh Colony, an auto-rickshaw driver and Gurmeet Singh, 35, of Sherpur, a mechanic.
On November 23, the victim, who was returning to her maternal home from a shrine lost her way and was waylaid by the accused who took her to a rented accommodation in Sherpur and sexually assaulted her,” said joint commissioner of police (JCP, city) Bhagirath Singh Meena.
The victim’s brother had lodged a complaint against the auto-rickshaw driver at the Division Number 4 Police Station on November 27.
The police formed six teams under additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, City 1) Deepak Pareek and assistant commissioner of police (ACP, central) Waryam Singh to search for the driver.
The teams scanned at least 300 CCTV cameras installed over 48 square kilometers in five days to identify the accused.Women police personnel, in particular, played a crucial role in solving the case.
Meena said ferreting out the rickshaw driver was no mean feat: “Tracing a three-wheeler in the city that has at least 30,000 autos on the road was like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, we conducted a thorough investigation. We started scanning CCTVs on all major roads and crossroads. The suspects were arrested from a rented accommodation in Railway Colony of Sherpur,” said Meena said.
“Raj confessed that he had found the victim on the roadside near Transport Nagar. He made the woman sit in his three-wheeler and took her to the rented accommodation of his friend Gurmeet Singh of Sherpur after roaming around the city for an hour. The men raped the victim and dropped her off near the Jalandhar Bypass the next morning,”police said.
Raj said he thought he would not be identified as he had bought a second-hand rickshaw and had not transferred the ownership to his name. However, upon learning that an investigation had been initiated, the accused hid in a rented accommodation to evade arrest. The accused were remanded to three days in police custody.
Victim had suffered domestic violence
The complainant had told the police that his sister was a domestic abuse victim, which had led to the manifestation of a mental disorder. She had undergone treatment for it and after regaining fitness returned to her husband’s house in October, 2018. However, he sent her back after a year and she resumed psychiatric treatment.
“On November 23, my sister lost her way while returning home from a shrine. The next day, we got a phone call saying she was in Ganna village, Phillaur, 20km away from Ludhiana. On November 27, she told us what had happened,” the victim’s brother told the police.
