An abandoned motorcycle led to the arrest of a 28-year-old taxi driver on the charge of raping a 25-year-old software engineer at her paying guest accommodation in Electronics City on Friday.
While the police had detained him along with two others for questioning, he was arrested on Tuesday.
The South East police said the accused, Shivaram Reddy, a resident of Hoskote, had borrowed the motorcycle from his relative to get to the paying guest accommodation. He was caught after the police tracked down the owner of the motorcycle.
A senior police officer said the accused, a habitual offender, who was armed with a knife, sneaked into the room using the key, which was kept on the windowsill near the main door. “The accused threatened the victim by telling her that his associates outside would gangrape and kill her if she did not cooperate,” the official said.
When she resisted the robbery attempt, he allegedly raped her and fled the scene after snatching Rs. 1,000 from her, the police said. In his hurry, he abandoned the motorcycle.
“He used the motorcycle to scout paying guest accommodations and had zeroed in on the victim. After committing the crime, he came out of the building to find that there were a lot of people around, so he decided to leave the motorcycle at the spot. He walked home, planning to pick it up later,” a police official said.
After tracking down the owner of the two-wheeler, a police team took Shivaram in for questioning during which he confessed to the crime, the official added.
According to the police, Shivaram, who hails from Chittoor, had come to the city a few years ago to work as a labourer. He later became a taxi driver and began targeting women staying in paying guest accommodations and robbing them of their valuables at knifepoint. He was chargesheeted for a similar offence at an accommodation in Mahadevapura where he allegedly molested a girl from Noida. He was caught while trying to escape and was released on bail last year.
