Bangalore:
In a shocking incident, a 36-year-old woman was molested in broad daylight by a local money lender in Bangalore. He also beat up an autorickshaw driver who tried to help the victim.
The complainant is married with two children. After her husband fell sick, a gang of local rowdies started troubling her and entered her residence without her knowledge. "When nothing could be done, I shifted my house and was safe for some time." she said.
The safety was soon shattered when the accused gang members traced her while she was returning from a clinic on Tuesday evening.
"My 5-year-old son was not well. After getting treatment, I was returning with my kids and a friend of mine in an autorickshaw. When we reached Ganganagar, Raghavendra, the accused, along with his seven friends stopped our vehicle and blocked our way with their bikes," she recalled.
"They slapped the auto driver, and dragged me outside. Raghavendra kept saying take me to your house or accompany me to mine. They kept using foul language," she said.
The whole drama happened at 4.30 pm, and even with a crowd watching, no one stepped forward to help.
"I was worried about my children, so I asked them to go ahead with my friend and tried to reason with Raghavendra. I told him that I shall take him to my house and hired another auto. Though he pressurised me to accompany him in his car, I tricked him and took him to the RT Nagar police station."
Raghavendra was allegedly in a drunken state, molested and threatened her that he would take revenge soon.
The RT Nagar inspector Poovaiah termed the incident a feud over financial transaction. "The victim owed around Rs 10 lakh to the accused and they fought over the issue in public," he said.