A 26-year-old housewife returning home after visiting her ailing husband at SSKM Hospital in the city was raped by a taxi driver in a sedan in the wee hours of Friday. `3,000 cash and a gold necklace were also snatched from her. However, unlike the Park Street gangrape case, the Entally police within six hours cracked the case and arrested the accused cabbie, Mumtaz Khan, 40. The sedan, a white Maruti Swift Dzire, was also impounded. The T-shirt of Mumtaz, a water bottle and a cellphone cover were recovered from the car.
The victim, a resident of Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas, had walked up to the Exide crossing between AJC Bose Road and J.L. Nehru Road after finding no cab near the hospital on Thursday late night. At around 11.30 pm, she boarded the sedan (WB04F 2892). The police said the sedan was registered as a “commercial taxi”.
Mumtaz, a resident of Gobra in Park Circus, was driving the sedan. The victim wanted to go to Sealdah station to catch a train. But Mumtaz took a different route. The woman screamed for help but her cry could not go outside as the glass and doors were locked by the central-locking system switched on by Mumtaz. He drove towards Dharmatolla first. “Travelling to Moulali, he crossed Philips more and stopped near Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital in Park Circus to pick his friend Habib Rehman, 20, another cabbie. After a while, Mumtaz changed the seat and asked Habib to drive claiming illness,” a senior officer of the Entally police station said.
Mumtaz directed Habib to take EM Bypass to travel to Rajarhat. “Reaching an isolated place, he asked Habib to remain on the driver’s seat and told him that he was going to the rear seat to collect the fare from the passenger. But instead Mumtaz tried to overpower her. As she screamed. Habib tried to resist Mumtaz but he pushed him off. Mumtaz then raped the woman on the rear seat in the car,” the officer elaborated.