This Article is From Dec 06, 2010

Call centre employee allegedly molested, beaten up in Delhi

Delhi: A day after Delhi police arrested the fourth accused in the gang rape case of a BPO employee in the Capital, another woman from the northeast revealed to MiD DAY that two men of African origin tried to rape her in Saket on December 1.

The victim, who is from Manipur and also works in a call centre, says the accused tried to abduct her near Select Citywalk mall in broad daylight. When she tried to raise an alarm, they beat her up. However they set her free and fled the scene when the victim started shouting for help. Hearing her cries, two police personnel rushed to her rescue.  

The victim has identified the accused from photographs in police records of foreign nationals in the city. But cops are clueless regarding their whereabouts. A senior police official confirmed the incident and said that a case has been lodged and investigation is on in full swing. He said that the accused have not been arrested because they might have fled abroad after the incident.

The victim is a native of Hongbiban village in Mizoram and has been working with a Noida-based call centre.

She lives in south Delhi along with a friend. She had come to Saket to collect her debit card from HDFC bank. On her way back home she was attacked by the two men.

"She said that she was walking towards Khidki Extension from Select Citywalk mall when two African guys started following her. They passed lewd comments at her and asked her for sex. She ignored them and kept moving. But one of the accused caught hold of her, calling her a prostitute, and started dragging her towards an isolated corner. He slapped her thrice when she tried to raise an alarm. The girl started shouting, hearing which two cops rushed to the scene. Seeing the cops running towards them, the accused fled from the spot," said a police source.   

A police official close to the investigation said that the victim was then taken in a PCR van by cops in search of the accused. Police thought that the two men might be roaming around in Saket, but they were not to be found.

Meanwhile, speaking to MiD DAY, the victim appeared angry and said that the city is no longer safe, especially for the northeast women.

"Am I a prostitute? Is the word painted on my face? If not then people don't have the right to call me that. People could have accused me of being careless if I had been roaming around on the streets at night. But this happened in broad daylight," she said.

"This is too much. People from the city avoid us. We too have a right to move around freely," she added.

She said that if the cops hadn't come to her rescue, hearing her cries, anything could have happened.

"When I asked them (the accused) why they were following me, they said that it was I who was following them," she said.
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