A pregnant woman jumped to death from a moving vehicle in a bid to save herself from being raped by the driver and cleaner in the Medak district of Telangana.
The incident, which occurred on the outskirts of Ravelli village on the Hyderabad-Nagpur national highway late on Saturday night, was reported on Sunday afternoon.
Ude Kalavathi (35), a seven-month-old pregnant woman who eked out a living by selling old clothes, was returning to her village from Kompalli along with her daughter Sirisha (7) on Saturday night.
Kalavathi was forced to hitchhike as she missed the state-run RTC bus.
The driver forced her to pay the toll fee and misbehaved with her in front of her daughter.
Kalavathi resisted the driver and the cleaner but when they continued to abuse her, she jumped off the moving van. They immediately threw her cloth bag out, forced Sirisha to alight and fled the spot.
Kalavathi then crawled over to a nearby dhaba and informed locals there about the incident. She died before help could arrive.
Sirisha, who is in a state of shock, told the police that she saw her mother fighting with the driver.
The police have registered a case and are inspecting CCTV footages.
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