Hyderabad: A hotel receptionist allegedly tried to rape a 24-year-old woman, who checked into a hotel alone at LB Nagar, early on Tuesday. Police said the suspect, Dasari Shekhar, 30, switched off lights and CCTV cameras and entered the victim’s room using the master key.
The victim, an assistant manager at a finance firm in Mumbai, raised an alarm and escaped from the rape bid. Police arrested the culprit soon after the victim lodged a complaint. The incident occurred at around 3 am on Tuesday at Hotel Sitara in LB Nagar.
The victim, who hails from Vishakapatnam, said she was sleeping when someone entered her room. She woke up realising that someone was sitting on her bed and groping her. She started screaming and tried to get out of the bed.
As she started shouting the suspect ran out of the room. She alerted the hotel security and then the police. “She had come from Mumbai to Hyderabad to attend official duties. She reached here at around 9 pm on Monday night and checked into the hotel,” said LB Nagar ACP P. Venugopala Rao
After she checked in, the TV in her room started malfunctioning. “She then called hotel staff on the phone. The accused, Shekhar, himself went to the room and fixed it, and then went back to his desk. He must have planned the crime then,” said the ACP.
After six hours, when most of the staff were asleep, Shekhar took the master key of the victim’s room, switched off lights and CCTV cameras. “The victim’s room was locked from inside. But the suspect opened it using the master key,” said a police official.
Police officials said that Shekhar had confessed to the offense. Hailing from Krishna district, Shekhar had been working in the hotel since two years. He is married and now lives with his wife and kids at Vanastalipuram.
Police booked a case against him under Section 354 (assault or criminal force on woman with intent to outrage her modesty and 452 (trespass and assault).
He was sent to judicial custody by a local court.
