BENGALURU:  A 37-year-old woman was allegedly raped by an auto driver, who barged into her house in Bagalagunte on Wednesday when she was alone. He robbed her of her valuables, before trying to escape.

But an alert woman neighbour, responding to the survivor’s screams for help, rushed and locked the house from outside to prevent him from escaping. She then alerted the police and helped nab Nagaraj (36) who was hiding under a bed.

Locals, along with police, rushed the woman to a hospital nearby. The assault on the woman was brutal — Nagaraj had bitten off her lower lip and spat it on the floor before attacking her with a steel flask. She was hospitalised with a part of her lip shorn off, and multiple bruises. It was only late on Thursday that her statement was recorded, after she was discharged. 

A senior police officer said the incident took place around 1.30 pm when her husband, an ex-Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who is a security supervisor with a private company, was at work, and her young son was at college.

Nagaraj came to her house and rang the doorbell. When she opened the door, he pushed her in and locked the door from inside. He then dragged her to the bedroom, gagging her mouth with his palm, and allegedly raped her. 

When she tried to escape, he repeatedly hit her on her head with the flask and snatched her gold chain and other ornaments. Fighting him off, the woman managed to wriggle out of his grasp and run to the bathroom, where she locked herself in, constantly screaming for help.

During interrogation, Nagaraj confessed that he had wanted to rob her and that he had observed her movements. She often hired his auto, but of late, had stopped using his vehicle. Upset over this, he had decided to kill her, police interrogation revealed. Nagaraj, a resident of Sidedahalli, lives about half-a-km from the survivor’s house, and is unmarried.  Police are yet to ascertain whether he has been involved in similar crimes earlier.

Neighbour locks rapist in, calls cops 

Maheshwari (name changed), the rape survivor’s neighbour, was also alone at home and was washing clothes on her terrace. When she heard loud screams from below, she ran down to check, and noticed the woman waving her hand from the bathroom window.  

Sensing that she had was being attacked, Maheshwari immediately bolted the house from outside and called the police station. Sub-inspector Kumar and his staff rushed to the spot and opened the door to find Nagaraj hiding under the bed. The woman was bleeding from her mouth in the bathroom. She was rushed to a private hospital near Peenya, and police recorded the statement of Maheshwari, an eyewitness.