Auto-rickshaw driver gets 20-year rigorous imprisonment for raping US citizen

On the US citizen’s complaint, a case was registered at the Women police station in Sector 17, Chandigarh, in November 2016 and the accused was arrested from Ludhiana in December 2017

Over six years after an auto-rickshaw driver raped and robbed a US citizen in November 2016, a fast-track court on Wednesday sentenced him to 20-year rigorous imprisonment.

While taking her around Chandigarh in November 2016 to look for a low-budget accommodation, the auto driver had recommended that she look in Kharar. After driving her there, he raped her and also robbed her of her laptop and a mobile phone, before fleeing. (iStockphoto)

The convict, Baldev Singh, 38, a resident of Kharajpur Village, Patiala, was also fined ₹41,000.

The woman, in her complaint to the then inspector general of police, RP Upadhyaya, had detailed that she arrived in India in January 2015. In March 2015, she visited Chandigarh, where she hailed an auto-rickshaw while looking for a low-budget accommodation.

The woman alleged that after she travelled from sector to sector, the auto driver, Baldev Singh, recommended she look in Kharar. After calling a friend, he drove her to Kharar, where he raped her and robbed her of her laptop and a mobile phone, before fleeing.

On her complaint, a case was registered at the Women police station in Sector 17 in November 2016 and Baldev was arrested from Ludhiana in December 2017.

Police contacted the woman to come to India by March 2018 to record her statement and identify the accused. However, she couldn’t make it, and the police, thus, filed an application to proceed via video conferencing.

After being medically examined in France, the woman sent her medical report in French, for which the Chandigarh Police had sought help from Panjab University for translation.