Presence of mind saved her from rape

Trapped in moving car, embroidery worker yanks at hand gear

Presence of mind saved her from rape

Trapped in moving car, embroidery worker yanks at hand gear

Itu00a0was her knowledge of the working of motor vehicles that saved embroidery worker Ayesha Syed from the clutches of two men who abducted her and tried to rape her in their car.

Struggling to break free, the 35-year-old widow pulled at the hand gear, causing the moving car to come to an abrupt stop. As she was screaming at the top of her voice, her kidnappers panicked and dumped her on the road before speeding away.

Living with her parents in Jalahalli since the death of her lorry-driver husband a year-and-a-half ago, Ayesha supported herself and her four-year-old son by doing cloth embroidery.

The police are on the lookout for the two men.

As she had asthma, Ayesha would often go to Mattikere to buy medicine from a medical store called Raghu Medicals. Late in the night on Saturday, Ayesha was walking back home from the medical store when the two men in the car approached her and offered to give her a lift. "I was a bit tired and accepted their offer," she told the police.

Taken by surprise

She said that as soon as she got into the car, it began moving in a different direction than her home. She said when she questioned the two men about it, she was slapped by the man sitting next to her in the back seat and told to be silent.

"He pounced on me and tried to rape me," she told the police. "I tried to resist, but he pushed me under the seat and covered me with his body."

Smart move

Ayesha said she managed to slide her hand out and reach the hand gear. She yanked at it and the moving car screeched to a halt. Then she said she screamed as hard as she could. "I knew a little bit about the mechanism of vehicles and the use of the hand gear," she told the police. "This saved me."

After she was thrown out of the car, Ayesha ran home. She filed a complaint the police the next day.