Kullu: A rape incident of Japanese by taxi driver of Manali has once again raised questions over safety for tourists in valley. The accused has been arrested and is being interrogated by the police.
‘District police chief Shalini Agnihotri said, ‘Police swung into action after a complaint by the victim (30), who belongs to Japan, was lodged at Manali police station on Thursday.”
The victim told investigators that on Wednesday she visited many popular places like Hidimba temple, Vashishth, Solang Nullah and Manu temple through a hired taxi. Later in the day she asked the driver namely Deepak (aged 38, belongs to Katola of District Mandi) to drop her at Kullu bus stand as she had missed her bus to Dharamshala from Manali bus stand.
On the way to Kullu, the driver took her into a forest and raped her. After that incident the driver brought her back to Manali and booked a room in hotel for her but she managed to escape and stayed at another hotel in Manali.
On Thursday) she let Manali police know about the incident. Cases under IPC 376 and 506 by police have been registered.
“Immediately after getting the complaint the accused was arrested on Friday, ” said Shalini Agnihotri.
The accused has been identified by victim and both have been produced before a judicial magistrate.
”During investigating the victim claimed that she was threatened by the accused about being gang raped when she tried to protest and got scared as she had already heard about the brutality of Nirbhaya gang rape of Delhi, so did not resist him,” said Agnihotri.
The district police chief disclosed ”It was a blind case as complainant knew nothing about accused and neither recalled the car no. There were only two reference points, one was the music system in that car was of Mahindra model and the second clue was a restaurant on Beas River left bank that was identified by victim. These were worked upon by Police, who had deployed six different teams to crack the case.
Within 12 hours of the crime being reported, a police team headed by Anil Kumar, SHO Manali and Abhishek Yadav, an Indian Police Services (IPS) probationer under close supervision of SP Kullu Shalini Agnihotri had made a breakthrough and arrested Deepak, the taxi driver accused of the crime.
A theater artist, a script writer and a TV anchor, news is something that grips Renuka. She lives in Kullu.
