On April 21, a female architect booked a bike taxi from her residence in Yelahanka at around 11.10 p.m. to travel to Indiranagar. What followed next was a ride which made her decide that she would not hail a bike taxi again.
On the pretext of checking OTP, the rider, who was later identified by police as Deepak Rao, snatched her phone and allegedly sexually harassed her. While the woman resisted, the rider started to go in a direction different from the one he was supposed to take. To avoid further trouble, the woman jumped off the speeding bike and injured herself. Later, Rao was nabbed by the police.
Speaking to The Hindu, a close friend of the victim said that better accountability and security were the need of the hour for the safety of the womenfolk during the night hours. “She had been hailing bike taxis for a long time in Kolkata before she moved to Bengaluru, even as late as 11.30-12 in the night. Even here, she had hailed bike taxis several times, but this one incident was traumatising.”
