A Good Samaritan in the form of a retired armyman saved a 49-year-old woman from a group of men who were intimidating her while she was driving towards Indiranagar via the railway gate close to Maruthi Seva Nagar off Old Madras Road on Sunday afternoon.
The woman, Sujatha Ramprasad, is an accountant and member of the Residents’ Welfare Association of HAL II Stage. A group of four or five men in an autorickshaw asked her to stop claiming that she had hit their vehicle.
Sensing trouble, she continued driving. But the men in the auto overtook her and tried to flag her down. A motorist passing by warned her to get away from the spot. Ms. Sujatha continued to drive only to be followed by the men who began pursuing her on bikes.
When she made it to Old Madras Road, the men began banging on her car demanding that she get out.
It was at that point that a retired armyman, riding a bike, came to her rescue. He asked her and the men to settle the issue in the police station.
Ms. Sujatha drove straight to Indiranagar police station. Once inside, she collapsed on the table.
A police officer said, “She took a few seconds to recover while a Good Samaritan stood by her. The people who followed her had disappeared by then.” After she filed a complaint, ‘we sent a constable to the spot to identify the men but there was no one’.
Ms. Sujatha lamented, “It is sad that despite none of the passers-by or motorists came to my help while the group of men was intimidating me.”
Second such incident
On Friday, M. Sudhakar Rao, an employee of Tata Consultancy Services, ITPL, White Field, was assaulted while he was driving home from work on T.C. Palya Road around 8.45 p.m.
Narrating his ordeal on social media, Mr. Rao said that three girls on a two-wheeler hit his car. They were being chased by a dog. "I got down to help them and ensured that they were fine. When I got back in the car, I realised that I had a flat tyre.”
His ordeal began when a man offered to guide him to a puncture shop nearby and got into the car. “He demanded money. Assuming that he was asking money for helping me, I offered ₹200, but he demanded ₹10,000. He told to draw the money from an ATM ahead. When I refused, he began manhandling me. I got down and shouted for help. He also got down,” he said.
While Mr. Rao got back into the car and began to drive away, the man followed him with a few others in an auto and attacked him. When he tried to call the police, the gang snatched his phone and smashed it on the ground. “They hit me, tore my shirt, broke my spectacles and my identity card."
When curious onlookers gathered, the attackers told them that Mr. Rao was involved in a hit-and-run case. The onlookers intervened and forced him to apologised. "With no other option, I had to apologise to save myself from a dangerous situation."
Mr. Rao, however, did not lodge a complaint with the police.
Confirming the incident, a senior police officer said, “We have come across such incidents and intensified patrolling in sensitive areas.”
