Bengaluru: You might think that a woman is safe if she is out early in the evening and is in a crowded place. But Seema (name changed) had a harrowing experience after taking a ride in an autorickshaw from Vittal Mallya Road to her house in Viveknagar around 7 pm.
On May 30, Seema was forced to take the auto as she could not book an app-based cab.
Soon after into the auto, the driver asked her to lend him Rs 1,000 to fill fuel, which she found surprising as it was unusual for an autorickshaw driver to ask for such an exorbitant amount. Though she told him that she would give the money once they reached a petrol bunk, he insisted that she give the money immediately. He also told her that she need not worry about the money as he stayed at Neelasandra which is close to Vivek Nagar.
“The driver said that he has a Rs 2,000 note and it would be difficult for him to get the change. I agreed to pay him once we reached the petrol pump, but he wanted it immediately and started arguing in the middle of the road. I gave in and handed him over the money. The next moment, he took the left turn at the Café Coffee Day outlet near UB City and refused to go through St Mark’s Road, which is the shorter route, to my house” Seema told Deccan Chronicle.
Travelling a little further, he slammed the brakes at a dark and lonely part of the road near Sree Kanteerava Stadium. He ordered Seema to get down, and warned that if she didn’t, he would kill her with the same knife he had used to murder his wife.
“He refused to give back the money he had extorted from me and threatened to stab me with the knife he had kept in the auto. I left the place as I did not want to engage in an argument with him,” she said.
Shaken as she was, Seema walked down the road, petrified even to hail another auto. As she was crossing the road near Bangalore Club, the same driver passed by again, giving her a scary once over. “The driver was a middle-aged man and was not wearing his uniform. I was shocked and did not take down the autorickshaw’s registration number,” she said.
In the same area, an auto driver had threatened a woman with rape on May 13.
