Autorickshaw driver booked for molesting hospital staffer on way home in Ahmedabad

The Ahmedabad Police have booked an unidentified autorickshaw driver for allegedly molesting a 19-year-old hospital employee while she was returning home from work on Thursday evening.

According to the FIR lodged at the Chandkheda police station the survivor, Ananya Sharma (name changed) (19), who works as a patient transfer assistant at Apollo Hospital, Bhat, had hired an autorickshaw to return to her home in Bhadreshwar Housing Society, Kotarpur, around 7 pm on October 14.

In her statement, Sharma said the rickshaw driver began a conversation near Amul Dairy crossroads and asked her if the man who dropped her at work on an Activa scooter every morning was her husband. When she replied in the affirmative, the driver allegedly told her that he had been watching her for days, claimed to “like her”, and insisted on getting her mobile number.

When she refused, the driver allegedly continued to pressure her and later, while crossing Indira Bridge, “took advantage of her being alone” and improperly touched her.

Victim informed husband, police contacted

Shocked and frightened, Sharma immediately called her husband and asked him to meet her. The driver, however, dropped her near her society gate and left without taking the fare. The following day, she and her husband revisited the hospital premises and spotted the same autorickshaw and took photographs of both the vehicle and the driver before filing the complaint.

Based on her complaint, police registered a case against the autorickshaw driver under section outraging modesty of a woman of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and initiated an investigation.

The probe has been assigned to Sub-Inspector Vinodkumar Pandey who said efforts are underway to trace the driver using the vehicle registration details and CCTV footage from the Apollo Hospital area and Indira Bridge stretch.

Police officials said the accused is yet to be identified and detained. “The victim acted bravely by immediately informing her family and the police. We are verifying the rickshaw registration and working on locating the driver,” said an officer from Chandkheda Police Station.