A choreographer was arrested by the city police on Saturday while the hunt was on for his associate in a gang-rape case of a Kolkata tourist in Hyderabad reported more than two months ago.
The arrested Preeth Shergill, 39, lured the tourist to his house in Marredpally and sexually assaulted her after offering her a drink laced with sedative, the police said. Shergill's driver-cum-maid Sultan alias Neeraj too violated the woman, North zone DCP B. Sumathi said in a press release.
The victim from Kolkata was on a trip to Hyderabad and landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Shamshabad on February 14. While heading to Park hotel where she had booked a room, the victim got introduced to a woman Pinky Roy. The woman stayed in the hotel that night but shifted to Hotel Sitara Paradise in Ameerpet the next day where Ms. Pinky met her. She suggested to the woman tourist that they can take the help of her 'friend' Shergill, who had a car, to move in the city.
On February 15 evening, Shergill drove to the hotel in his Honda City and picked up the two women. After traversing some distance, Ms. Pinky got off the car pretending that she had some urgent work. "Actually she did so at the instance of Shergill," Marredpally Inspector Ch. Umamaheshwar Rao said.
The choreographer stopped by his house in West Marredpally. "He asked her to join him for coffee at home. When she felt drowsy after gulping the coffee laced with sedative, the choreographer raped her," the Inspector said. He confined her in a room and snatched her wallet and gold rings. The next day, Shergill's driver-cum-maid Sultan also sexually assaulted the woman. The same evening, two of the choreographer's friends came to meet him. "One of them also violated the woman," said Mr. Rao.
On February 17, the woman tourist threw out a tissue paper, on which she wrote her mother's contact number, from the window. "On seeing this, the choreographer fled the house after asking his driver to arrange a cab for the woman to be dropped at the airport," the Inspector said.
She later approached the Shamshabad police but on learning about the sexual assault in Marredpally, the Hyderabad police registered a case of rape, robbery and illegal confinement. They caught the choreographer and are looking for the other accused, including Ms. Pinky Roy.
