A citizen of the United States working with an international voluntary organisation was allegedly sexually assaulted by an unidentified person who sneaked into her rented penthouse in Banjara Hills here in the early hours of Wednesday.
The crime in the prime residential locality came as a jolt to the police prompting them to launch a massive hunt for the accused about whom they have no clue yet. In her complaint, the woman in her late 20s stated that she woke up to a sound and found a stranger in her bedroom around 3 a.m.
“He was short and spoke broken English. He tied me to the bed with a rope and blindfolded me using a cloth,” she told the police. The accused, according to her, stayed in the room for over an hour, violated her thrice and even bathed in the washroom before fleeing.
The house owner living with wife and son in the ground floor as well as the neighbours maintained they heard no noise. Police surmise that the air-conditioner in the room could have stifled any sound and the victim might not have raised an alarm due to shock.
“She said the intruder threatened to kill her. It is yet to be ascertained if he brandished a knife or a firearm,” Police Commissioner A.K. Khan said after speaking to the victim.
West Zone DCP, Stephen Ravindra, said the police got information about the sexual assault around 6.30 a.m. and rushed the victim to Niloufer hospital and later got her examined at a corporate hospital. After the offender left, the woman managed to untie herself, rang up a doctor known to her and then apprised the house owner of the incident.
Rear staircase
Police believe the offender reached the penthouse using a rear staircase. The window of the penthouse bedroom did not have grilles or shutters making it easy to sneak inside, they said. Sniffer dogs were brought to the scene.
