City girl raped by cabbie in tourist haven Sikkim

TT, Gangtok, May 16: A teenager from Calcutta was allegedly raped in Sikkim yesterday by a taxi driver who promised to widen the sightseeing itinerary free of charge but pushed two of her friends out of the cab and sped away with the girl to a wooded terrain.</span>

The sexual assault has sent shockwaves in Sikkim, a picturesque state known as a safe tourism destination.

The three girls from Calcutta, all aged 18, were in Sikkim on holiday soon after clearing their ISC examinations and before immersing themselves in the college admission process. They wanted to enrol in Presidency University, sources said.

The girls had reached Sikkim on Friday along with the parents of one of them. The parents of the girl who was assaulted are no more, the sources added.

The driver, Prem Rai, and the girl were found in the car in the woods beside the North Sikkim Highway near Phodong, 25km from here, around 7.30pm yesterday.

" The medical report has confirmed rape," said Tom Tshering Lepcha, the station house officer at Phodong outpost, after the driver and the girl were taken to a hospital.

Lepcha said the girls had hired Rai's taxi around 1pm yesterday for Rs 1,300 to visit 10 tourist spots in and around Gangtok.

" The girls said the parents did not accompany them, thinking that travelling in Gangtok taxis was safe," said Lepcha.

After visiting three places — the Rumtek monastery, Ganesh temple and Tashi Viewpoint — the driver offered to take the trio to a waterfall along North Sikkim Highway for free, the police said.

" While two girls were sitting in the back seat, the third was in the front seat.

After the visit to the waterfall around 4.30pm, the driver again offered to take the girls to see another one close by. The girls, however, refused. The driver started abusing them and pushed the two in the rear out of the car in the middle of the highway at a deserted spot and drove off with the third girl," Lepcha said.

He said the girls and the driver had earlier eaten momos and the girl who was later raped was offered a soft drink by the driver when she said the sauce was too hot. " The soft drink was spiked with alcohol.

The driver was drunk," he said.

One of the girls left behind carried a cellphone but there was no network in the forested area. The two girls walked almost 2km to Phodong village and narrated the incident to the residents there. The villagers informed the parents, who were in a Gangtok hotel, Lepcha said.

Lepcha said the villagers contacted the Phodong outpost and a search was launched to trace the car.

" The father of the girl had taught in a school in North Sikkim and had some local friends whom he contacted for help.

Around 7.30pm, we spotted the car inside a wooded area beside the highway. The girl was lying unconscious inside the vehicle and the driver was also there. The driver tried to defend himself by telling us that he was bringing the girl back to the hotel and the car had got stuck in a traffic jam," Lepcha said.

The police arrested Rai, 22, who hails from Dickhu in East Sikkim and booked him under Section 376 ( rape) of the IPC. The driver has a one- year- old son.

" The driver will be produced in the North Sikkim district court at Mangan on Tuesday. We will seek five days' police remand.

An investigation is on. The girl and the others are in their hotel in Gangtok," said Palden Bhutia, the subdivisional police officer of Mangan, North Sikkim.

Namgyal Bhutia, the vice- president of the Travel Agents' Association of Sikkim, said: " We strongly condemn the heinous act of the driver. He has brought disgrace not only to his family but to the entire state of Sikkim and the tourism industry.

All our sympathy and support are with the girl, her family and friends." Compared with many other states, crimes against women are low in Sikkim.

The National Crime Records Bureau says Sikkim reported 47 rapes in 2013- 14 against 1,466 in Bengal and 1,127 in Bihar.