The Crime Branch has arrested three persons,including a cab driver engaged by a leading IT firm and the security guard of another IT firm,for allegedly kidnapping,robbing and then murdering software engineer Nayna Pujari (28) who was found dead at Jariwada Phata in Rajguru Nagar on October 9. Police suspect that the victim was also raped. We are awaiting the medical reports, said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) AD Shinde. The arrested are Yogesh Ashok Raut (24),Mahesh Balasaheb Thakur (24) and Raju alias Rajesh Pandurang Chaudhary,all residents of Rajgurunagar. Shinde said Raut had given his car on contract to Zensar Technologies in Kharadi for picking and dropping its employees for the past six months. Choudhary was a security guard at Synechron Technology Private Ltd. Thakur was a casual driver of Rauts car. According to police,Nayna,a resident of Katraj,had missed her regular company vehicle on October 8. They suspect that Raut had approached Nayna around 7.30 pm,promising to drop her home in his cab. The police said Nayna might have agreed to the idea considering that it was also a company cab. Raut,Choudhary,Thakur and one more accomplice Vishwas Kadam,who is a cab driver at another software company in Wadgaonsheri,were sitting in the car when Nayna boarded it. They closed the windows and gagged her mouth with a pillow so that she could not make any noise, Shinde said. The suspects then took Nayna to an isolated spot near Lohegaon. They took her credit card and forced her to reveal the PIN number. Raut and Thakur then went to an ATM centre in Viman Nagar and withdrew money. The accused have withdrawn Rs 41,000 from three ATM centres using her credit card. They also robbed her ornaments. Fearing that Nayna could contact the police,the accused decided to kill her. They took her to a deserted spot in Jarewadi via Alandi. Here they strangulated her with her dupatta and stoned her face so that she could not be identified, he said. The police were probing the case on the basis of calls made from Naynas mobile phone. The needle of suspicion pointed towards the cab drivers. The images of suspects that we got from the CCTVs in ATM centres helped us solve the case, said Shinde. The police have booked the suspects under Section 302 (murder),363 (kidnapping),394 (robbery) of the Indian Penal Code. They have also seized the car used for committing the crime and a two-wheeler from them. Nayna was one of our best employees. She missed a company shuttle at 7.30 pm. She contacted our travel desk requesting for a cab. She was asked to wait,as the cab was available at 8.15 pm. But she picked up another car from the main road. It was not ours, said Tanveer Saulat,managing director of Synechron Technology. We have decided to issue laptops and BlackBerry mobile phones to the female employees so that they can work from home in the evening. Their work time would be from 8 am to 5 pm and after that if required,they would be asked to communicate with our clients using laptop and BlackBerry. Shinde said the private companies have learned nothing from the past experiences. We had issued guidelines to the companies for the security of their staff,especially female employees. Regulation on the cab drivers is essential. Police guidelines to firms* A guard should accompany a woman employee for pick-up in night (starting 8 pm) and before 6 am* Men should be picked up first and then the women staff* While dropping them off,the women should be dropped first and then the men* Women employees should not sit on the front seat next to the driver* Updating the drop sheet comprising the time of drops along with the signature of the employee should be done by the driver
