New Delhi: A 19-year-old German national was allegedly sexually assaulted by an unidentified auto-rickshaw driver in central Delhi, police said.
The incident occurred in Prasad Nagar area more than two months ago, when the German girl, who works for an NGO in Maharashtra, had come to Delhi with a male friend, and both were staying at a hotel in Patel Nagar, police said. While the Delhi Commission For Women (DCW) on whose direction an FIR was lodged maintained that victim was assaulted twice in the same night, the police said she has alleged being attacked only once.
According to police, on December 14 night, the woman was walking in a lane near Patel Nagar when she lost her way and sought help for directions. An auto-rickshaw driver then offered her lift and later allegedly sexually assaulted her after pulling over the vehicle at a secluded spot.
The accused then fled the scene and the woman came back to the hotel on foot. She did not report the incident to anyone, not even to her friend, and in a day or two both left Delhi, police said.
On February 5, the woman dropped an e-mail to the DCW and informed the Commission about the incident. She later came to Delhi on February 9 and the next day the Commission counseled her and guided her in lodging a police complaint, a senior DCW official said.
"On February 24, DCW chief Swati Maliwal issued a notice to DCP (Central) and an FIR was registered," the senior official said.
According to DCW, however, on December 14 night, after being sexually assaulted once by the auto-rickshaw driver, the woman managed to escape and run to another street where she was intercepted by the accused again then with a group of men sitting inside the vehicle and molested.
Fearing that locals in the area may get hold of them, the accused men fled the scene. Later, a man returning home from office found the woman sitting on a pavement and escorted her to the hotel. The victim was too traumatised to report the matter to the police in a foreign place or anyone else, the DCW official said.
The police, however, maintained that there was one accused and claimed that the victim in her statement did not mention about the second part of the narration as told by DCW.
"A case under Section 376 (rape) of IPC has been registered in connection with the matter against one unidentified person," DCP (Central) Parmaditya said.
So far the complainant hasn't been able to provide description of the accused driver. A team has been set up to crack the case and several persons have been questioned, he said.
