Techie raped by cab drivers in Hyderabad, two held

Accused will be tried under the Nirbhaya Act, says commissioner

The police have arrested two drivers for abducting a techie and raping her in their owner's brand new car last Friday. 

The accused will be tried under the Nirbhaya Act, said C V Anand, the police commissioner of Cyberabad, the IT district which houses the offices of many multinational giants.

The 22-year-old victim, an employee of a leading IT firm, was waiting for an auto rickshaw at Mindspace Junction after shopping at a nearby mall at 8:45 pm on Friday when a Volvo S60 stopped near her.

 V Sathish (30), the driver of the car which belongs to a businessman, offered to drop her at the working women's hostel at Gowlidoddi near Cyberabad for Rs 40. 

His friend N Venkateshwarlu (28), a cab driver, was also seated in the car, posing as a passenger. 

They took Abhaya—the name given by the police—to a secluded place and raped her in the car's back seat. 

According to Anand, a closed-circuit camera installed outside a school in Kollur, of the neighbouring Medak district, helped in identifying the car, leading to the accused. The drivers were produced before the media on Tuesday.

The police commissioner said when the accused diverted the car towards Outer Ring Road, the girl grew suspicious and raised an alarm. The driver told her he had lost his way. His friend also behaved like an irritated passenger.

The victim used her mobile phone to send a text message to her friends here and in Bangalore. The alleged miscreants took away the phone and switched it off.

 However, alerted by the message, her friends searched for her and then lodged a complaint with the police.  

After a six-hour ordeal, the victim was left near her hostel late in the night with a warning not to disclose the incident to anybody. She is now being treated at a private hospital and is out of danger.

Anand said the blurred footage from the school's CCTV camera showed the car. “We were not able to make out anything from the footage. We approached National Investigation Agency, who helped us enhance the blurred image,” he said.
 As the city has only 77 Volvo S60 cars, the police didn't take much time tracing the vehicle. Subsequent investigation led to the arrest.

Venkateshwarlu told reporters he did not want to rape the girl, but Sathish threatened to kill him if he did not.

The police chief advised women working in the IT sector to use the public transport system and carry pepper spray and software in their mobile phones.