14 March,2011 07:31 AM IST | | Abhishek Anand
The victim was beaten with a brick and rendered semi-conscious
A 77-year-old woman was raped and beaten up by a rickshaw-puller in Rohini area of Outer Delhi on Friday evening.u00a0u00a0
According to a police official, the incident happened when the victim, Dayawati, (name changed) was returning home from her sister's place in Rohini Sector 15 in a cycle rickshaw.
u00a0"Usually her sister used to accompany her to her home. However, on Friday the victim was alone. She had struck a deal with a rickshaw puller for Rs 25 to take her to Sector 7 in Rohini. The rickshaw puller went by a different route (not the one she usually took) and then led her to the Japanese Park area," the official said
"The victim's family claimed that the rickshaw puller had picked up an argument with her over the route and to end that she offered him more money to take her home faster. However , he allegedly attacked her with a brick, made her smell some chemicals following which she became semi-conscious and then raped her," the official added.
When she didn't reach home late in the evening, her sons started looking for her. "They approached police late in the night," the official said. Dayawati was later found in semi-conscious state, soaked in blood, some 200 meters away from KN Katju Marg police station. She was taken to Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital where she is undergoing treatment. The victim's husband used to work at Pusa Physical Science Laboratory.
Police have recorded her statement and filed a case. Though they have questioned more than hundred rickshaw pullers in this connection, no arrests have been made so far.
Crime watch
Around 40 rape cases have been reported in the capital so far this year. In 2010, the city witnessed 489 rape incidents, including the infamous Dhaula Kuan rape and Mongolpuri, as against 2009's 459. The figures for 2006 was 609 followed by a drop to 581 next year while in 2008 it further dipped to 466. Molestation cases in the capital showed an increase in 2010 to 585 from last year's 532.
