A 25-year-old woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped by a six-member gang in an open field in Chikkabagalur following an instance of suspected road rage on Thursday night.
Six persons have been arrested, police said on Friday. The mother of a five-year-old daughter was returning to her Vijayanagar residence via a friend’s place after visiting Garvepalya, where she had lived before getting married to an autorickshaw driver.
Her husband had gone to Malavalli in Mandya district, to meet his relatives when the incident took place.
The police said Nirmala (name changed) was proceeding towards her friend, Mohan Kumar’s house in Lakshmi Layout, in his mini lorry, when their vehicle grazed a Tata Indica in which the gang was travelling around 9.30pm. The accident happened in Lakshmi Layout.
The gang forced Kumar out of the vehicle and demanded Rs10,000 to repair the car. The man refused, saying the damage was a minor one.
Deputy commissioner of police (South-east) BNS Reddy said the gang forcefully took Kumar and Nirmala and drove towards Chikkabagalur. Sensing trouble, the man offered to pay the money.
However, the gangsters started beating him inside the moving car. Kumar later jumped off the vehicle and escaped, leaving Nirmala behind.
The man reportedly told the police that he had thought the gangsters would not harm the woman. Later incidents proved Kumar wrong. The gang took the woman to an open field near the Bagalur Lake and raped her around 11pm.
Kumar, meanwhile, tried to reach Nirmala over her mobile phone. The woman told him that she had returned home. It was later revealed that the gang had threatened her into saying that she was safe. Her friend, however, smelt something fishy, and continued calling her at regular intervals. Nirmala kept on saying she had returned home.
Kumar, however, decided to go to Nirmala’s house and check if she had returned home safely. When he reached her house, he found out that she was yet to return. He lodged a complaint of kidnap with the Electronics City police.
The police launched a search, and found the Tata Indica, matching the description Kumar had provided, parked in front of a house. The investigators questioned M Santosh Kumar, the resident of that house, who told them that his friends were out in a nearby field.
The police rushed to the field, where they found the six men with Nirmala, said assistant commissioner of police (Mico Layout sub-division) D Rachappa. One of the men, identified as Tayappa, of Chikkabagalur, fled on seeing the police. The rest of the men, including Santosh, 24, were arrested. Police named the other five arrested as Ranjith BG, 20, Udayakumar, 20, Mruthyunjaya, 21, Basavaraju, 22, and Madhu, 25. Police said Santosh was not involved in the rape, but provided shelter for the gang. The car belonged to Ranjith, a call centre cabbie. Nirmala was taken to a hospital for a medical examination.
