Taxi driver rapes tourist; kills her, friend

A Delhi-based woman tourist was allegedly raped and murdered and her male friend killed by a taxi driver and his three accomplices here, the police said on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old woman and her 24-year-old male companion had arrived in Dehradun on October 21 to celebrate Diwali, but they went missing after two days, said Vikasnagar Circle Officer Swapan Kishore Singh. The four accused, cab driver Raju, Bablu, Guddu and Kundan, have been arrested, and were being interrogated, he said.

One of the accused confessed during interrogation that he raped the woman before killing her, police sources claimed, adding that this can be confirmed only after her body was found. The incident happened on October 23 when the victims were returning in the taxi from Tiger Falls, about 30 km from Chakrata.

As there was no news about them for several days, the woman’s father lodged a complaint in Delhi on October 29, they said. The matter came to light after her friend’s body was recovered from Purola town in Uttarkashi district.

The sources said that the accused confessed that the woman’s body was dumped in the Yamuna river near Lakhamandal while her friend’s body was thrown from a cliff about 2 km from there. A search operation has been launched to find the woman’s body from the Yamuna.