Two drivers have been arrested for abducting and raping a 22-year-old software engineer in information technology hub of Hyderabad four days ago, police said Tuesday.
The drivers were Tuesday produced before media by Cyberabad Police Commissioner C. V. Anand.
Earlier, it was believed that the accused dropped the girl and fled after she raised an alarm but police Tuesday revealed that the girl was taken on the city outskirts and raped by the duo.
V. Sathish (30) and N. Venkateswarlu (28) took Abhaya, the name given by police, to Kolluru in Medak district on the outskirts of Hyderabad and raped her on Friday night. They later left the girl near the working women's hostel at Gowlidoddi near Cyberabad, the IT district housing many multinational giants.
The victim, an employee of a leading IT firm, was waiting for an autorickshaw at Mindspace Junction after shopping at a nearby mall at 8.45 p.m. Friday when a car (Volvo S60) stopped.
Satish, driver of the car belonging to a businessman, offered to drop her at the hostel for Rs.40. His friend Venkateshwarlu, a cab driver, was also seated in the car and was posing as a passenger.
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The police commissioner said the accused diverted the car towards Outer Ring Road (ORR) and when the girl grew suspicious and raised an alarm, the driver told her that he had lost the way. He took the car to Kolluru where the accused raped the girl.
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.
Anand said the case was cracked with the help of footage from a CCTV camera of a school at Kolluru. "The help of National Investigation Agency (NIA) was taken to enhance the blurred image of a car," he said.
As the city has only 77 Volvo S60 cars, the police traced it to businessman Manoj Agarwal and the investigations led to the arrest of his driver.
Venkateshwarlu told reporters that Satish forced him to rape the girl. He claimed that he did not want to rape the girl but Satish threatened to kill him if he did not do so.
The police commissioner said the investigations also revealed loopholes in the security on ORR as the number of the car was not registered on a toll gate and the CCTV cameras were also not working.
The police chief has advised women especially women IT employees to use the public transport system as far as possible to avoid any such incidents. The women were also advised to carry pepper spray guns/whistle cards/press button alert software in their mobile phones.
"The mobile patrolling and CC TV surveillance system is being strengthened apart from sensitizing programs in IT companies with the assistance of Cyber Security Council," he added.