A 57-year-old autorickshaw driver was sentenced to ten years in jail for raping a 42-year-old mentally challenged woman in Andheri in 2015. Umar Dawood Sayyed was caught while he was committing the offence in an autorickshaw on April 30, 2015. According to the prosecution, on April 30, 2015, three policemen on a patrol duty were approached by a person, who informed them about a rape being committed in an autorickshaw. The policemen ran towards the autorickshaw and saw Sayyed forcing himself on the victim. The policemen in their deposition told the court that the victim looked scared and her hair was scattered. She was taken to the police station but despite being asked about her name and whereabouts, she remained incoherent and unable to reply. She was referred to a hospital and it was found that she was mentally unstable. The police subsequently managed to trace her family as her father had filed a missing person’s complaint at a local police station. The accused was booked on charges including rape. During the trial, the court examined the victim but she was unable to identify the accused. The victim’s father, too, was declared hostile by the prosecution. The special court, however, ruled that there was no reason for the police to fix this accused in the case.
