It was some bravado, some preparedness and a pepper spray that helped the 22-year-old woman to save herself from the machinations of two abductors at SR Nagar on Tuesday night.
The woman did panic obviously as the driver of the auto-rickshaw continued to drive on unknown roads. But she had the presence of mind to call her friend on her mobile to inform her that she was being abducted. Noticing this, the other man sitting next to the driver moved into the passenger compartment of the auto and tried to pin her to the seat to prevent her from using her phone and also to stop her from escaping.
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That was when the young software engineer used the pepper spray and jumped out of the moving three-wheeler near DLF bus stop in Madhapur. She fell on her back and sustained a bleeding wound on the back of her head.
Surprised passers-by, including a Wipro employee Naveen, tried to chase the auto, but the abductors managed to speed away. The woman was rushed to a private hospital. “She was courageous, intelligent and took the bull by horns. Instead of panicking, her spontaneous response saved her from the clutches of kidnappers though she suffered injury,” the West zone DCP G. Sudheer Babu said on Wednesday after speaking with her.
The woman is a graduate from BITS, Pilani, and hails from Maharashtra. She came to city for a project work and was residing at Narayanaguda. She boarded the three-wheeler after coming out of L’Oreal beauty parlour in Madhapur around 7.45 p.m. on Tuesday and wanted to go to Maithrivanam in Ameerpet. As other passengers in the sharing auto-rickshaw got off at different points, she was alone by the time it reached Yousufguda. “The driver and his accomplice planned to abduct her apparently then as she was alone and got onto a different route. Actually, she wanted to get off at Maithrivanam in Ameerpet,” the police said. Though she was not familiar with the city roads, the engineer felt something was fishy as she was driven through lanes and by-lanes. She realised the duo had some sinister plans as they intimidated to kill her if she shouted for help. Finally, she escaped by jumping out of the vehicle after an hour. Meanwhile, her friend complained to North zone DCP Ch. Srikanth who alerted Mr. Sudheer Babu.
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Analysing her mobile phone call data, police traced her in a hospital at Ameerpet and shifted to Apollo Hospital in Jubilee Hills. The Madhapur police registered a case of attempt to kidnap and launched a massive hunt for the two accused by forming special teams. They are trying to identify them by examining the video footage recorded by surveillance cameras at two junctions in Madhapur.