As Pune grows,manpower inadequate for peripheries: cops

On April 1 this year,three persons,including a private car driver,allegedly gang-raped a 25-year-old woman at Hinjewadi. The victim,a native of Nagpur,was a hospitality management professional who had come to Pune in search of a job about 15 days back. She took lift in a private Indica car at around 4 pm,thinking that it was a share taxi as she wanted to attend a seminar on Bhandarkar Road. But the car driver and his aides took her to an open plot in Hinjewadi and then raped her one after the other. The police arrested the suspects,including the kingpin Subhash Bhosale,who was a history-sheeter. It was learnt that the city police had externed Bhosale due to his increasing criminal activities,but he managed the get the externment order canceled from the home department. Then,on October 10,2009,a software engineer,Nayana Phatak-Pujari (28) of Katraj,an employee of Synechron Technology at Kharadi,was gang-raped and brutally murdered. Police have arrested the suspects,including the security guard Rajaram Choudhary,who was deployed at Synechron.

Mrityunjay Singh,president of the Hinjewadi Industries Association,said,“In the last one-and-half years there have been some instances of heinous crimes against women working in private companies. Most of the companies are paying proper attention to the security of employees,especially women Strict measures are being followed for the security of women in the IT sector,especially during their travel from home to company and back.But we have our limitations. We cannot control things that happen outside the company. Better policing is required for controlling the attacks on techies,” he said.

The Pune police say that they have solved all the rape cases registered in the last one year. But there is a reason to worry as an average of four girls are being raped every month in the jurisdiction of Pune police. According to the figures obtained from the police commissionerate,43 cases of rape were registered between June 2009 to June 2010.

Police however say that in the majority of these cases,the accused men had lured women or girls on fake assurances of marriage and then developed sexual relations with the consent of women. It was only after the women found that they were cheated,that they lodged complaint of rape against the men. According to a senior police official,only 10 rape cases of the 43 were such that the men forcibly developed physical relations with the women. “The accused have been arrested in all these cases,” he said.

Gangs of robbers and con men targeting women are also actively operating in the city. In a broad day light incident on July 16,a gang of three unidentified men robbed a 35-year-old woman Kiran Pravin Naik at her railway ticket booking center in Warje at gunpoint. At around 2 pm,three persons entered the shop in the pretext of booking railway ticket. But suddenly,they pointed a gun on Naik,hit on her head with a hard object and then looted her gold ornaments,and cash worth Rs 39,500.

About five hundred chain snatching cases were registered with the police in the last one year. In a recent incident,two motorcycle-borne youths,snatched a gold chain worth Rs 45,000 from Vatsala Sahdevan (49),a resident of Atmanand Park in Viman Nagar,while she was walking home around 8.45 pm on Monday.

HALL OF SHAMEApril 2,2007:
A 24-year-old woman from Phursungi,Rupali Chavan,a graphic designer with a software firm in Hinjewadi,was kidnapped and murdered by Ganesh Nanaware,a driver and father of two children,following a one-sided love affair.

November 1,2007:
22-year-old Wipro employee Jyotikumari Choudhary from Pune was raped and murdered by the driver of her office cab,and his friend.

October 22,2008:
22-year-old Khushboo Mishra,working as an engineer with Cap Gemini in Nigdi,was stabbed to death at her Balewadi flat by her colleague Manu Abrol (22),who was allegedly having a love affair with her.

March 12,2009:
34-year-old BPO employee Vidya Ghorpade and her five-year-old son Om,were found murdered with multiple stab wounds at their residence in Empire Estate,in Chinchwad. Police arrested grocery shop owner Kiran Pujari,who allegedly murdered Ghorpade following an illicit love affair.

March 22,2009:
Pooja Surnar (23) of Aurangabad,working as junior engineer with the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited at Pune,was murdered by 23-year-old Yogesh Patale,also from Aurangabad,after she had allegedly turned down his marriage proposal.

July 8,2009:
Software engineer Urvashi Dhavale (32) was stabbed to death near her residence on Sus road. Investigation revealed that her murder was a supari killing masterminded by her husband Arvind Ghadole (43) of Gondia.

July 28,2009:
Software engineer Shradha Chhajed (23) of Model Colony was found dead at Vasmat taluka in Hingoli district on July 29. Anmol Jabbal,who allegedly had a one-sided love affair with her,surrendered before the police.

August 7,2008:
A 22-year-old call centre employee at IBM in Phursungi was allegedly gang-raped by a cab driver. Her boyfriend lodged the police complaint

October 10,2009:
Software engineer Nayana Phatak-Pujari (28) of Katraj,an employee of Synechron Technology at Kharadi,was gang-raped and murdered by a cab driver and security guards.

October 12,2009:
Software engineer Smita Satpute (32) was strangulated to death by her husband Deepak (34) at their residence in Dwarka Sai Heritage,Pimple Sudagar.

April 1,2010:
A 25-year-old woman from Nagpur,a hospitality management professional who had come to Pune in search of a job,was gang-raped by a private car driver and his aides in Hinjewadi.

July 31,2010:
21-year -old IBM trainee engineer Darshana Devidas Tongare at Bavdhan was murdered by unidentified persons.