A 37-year-old home-alone woman had a nightmare when a man working as a driver near her house tried to rape her. The incident happened in Gantiganahalli near the BSF campus on Ballari Road late night on May 8.
Police have arrested the suspect, Ratan Kumar, 27, of Jharkhand. He works as a driver at a firm near the woman's residence.
The woman hails from Guwahati, Assam, and has been living in Bengaluru for the last five years. She is a cook at a private firm and has been living in a rented house at Gantiganahalli for three months.
She didn’t know Kumar till the day of the incident. He used to knock on her door repeatedly and disappear. When she complained to her building owner and neighbours, he feigned innocence. They asked him to keep watch if someone troubled her again. Little did the woman or the owner know it was Kumar himself.
The woman's husband, who works as a cook in an international school, was out on some work. She heard someone repeatedly knocking on her door around 9.30 pm. She didn’t open the door and asked who was there. When there was no response, she ignored the calls and stayed inside.
"Within a few minutes, I heard someone knocking on the door again. This time, I shouted and complained to the building owner and my neighbours. Kumar was one of those who gathered," she said.
He pretended to guard her house. The building owner gave her Kumar's number and asked her to call him if someone knocks on the door again.
The woman heard someone knocking on the door around 11.30 pm. She opened the window and found no one. "Within a minute, I noticed Kumar walking in front of my house. He called me sister and asked what happened. When I told him that someone knocked on the door again, he said ‘didi chor baaju ghar mein hai’ (sister, the thief is in the adjacent house) and asked me to open the door," she said.
"As soon as I opened the door, he pushed me to the floor inside and tried to rape me. He tried to remove my clothes. I fought with him and tried to push him away. He abused me. When I didn’t give up, he got angry and picked up an object which I believe was a wooden log. By then I was outside my house, and he hit me multiple times with the log on my head, legs and hands. He tried to kill me. He escaped when I shouted for help,” she said.
The woman called up her landlord and husband and told them about the incident. She was rushed to a hospital where doctors treated her. She received 16 stitches on her scalp, which has a deep gash.
Chikkajala police arrested Kumar for sexual harassment. He confessed he had been eyeing the victim since she moved into the building.