Deserted stretch off old Rohtak road has no history of crime

The spot where the 25-year-old woman was raped by a Uber cab driver on Friday night is somewhere on a deserted five-hundred metre stretch in Zakhira village near Inderlok, North Delhi.

The police, however, are yet to zero in on the exact crime scene.

The entry to this stretch is through the busy Old Rohtak Road, where there is traffic almost round-the-clock. But a few steps, to the left of this road, on the stretch leads to a dense jungle, which ends at a small temple. A canal runs along this entire stretch and there are no street lights or CCTV cameras in the area. Investigating officials said the accused had chosen the stretch carefully, knowing he would not be caught or seen.

The sound of traffic from the busy Rohtak road here is drowned by the water flowing in the canal. Temple authorities said they had not heard about the incident and that this is the first time any crime had been reported from that particular road. A security guard is posted at the gate, where there once existed the Swatantra Bharat Mill. But he claimed he had not heard about the incident. The mill compound has now been converted into a large DDA park, which is locked at night.

“During the day, those who wish to offer prayers use this road to visit the temple but at night nobody uses this road. If the accused got the victim here, then he must be knowing this area well because no one comes here. If it has happened in the middle of this stretch, then there is no chance anyone would have heard the woman’s cries,” said an official at the temple.

The victim was unable to identify the spot and it was the accused Shiv Kumar Yadav who revealed the details of the area. The police will visit the spot with Yadav on Tuesday.

Police suspect that the victim was held captive by Yadav for at least an hour. When she regained consciousness, she found that the accused had used the child lock in the car’s rear door to ensure she did not escape, the victim has said. The victim told the police that it did not take more than 15 minutes for the driver to drop her home with a warning to not inform the police. The victim had informed the police control room at 1.30 am on Saturday.