Video Producer: Divya Uppal
Video Editor: Prajjwal Kumar
(Trigger warning: Descriptions of rape. Reader discretion advised.)
"He (accused) forcefully entered my house after handing over my delivery. He threatened me with a knife and raped me. When I resisted, he hit me. After I began to scream loudly, he ran away."
This is what a 19-year-old woman, allegedly raped by a delivery agent who came to drop milk and eggs at her doorstep inside a high-rise apartment in Greater Noida on Friday, 27 October, said in her First Information Report (FIR), as quoted by police officials.
The accused, identified as 25-year-old Sumit Sharma, who worked for grocery aggregator BlinkIt, was arrested by the Bisrakh police on 29 October, following a gunfight in Khairpur village, police officials told The Quint.
Based on the woman's complaint, the Bisrakh police station on 27 October registered an FIR under sections 376 (rape), 511 (punishment to attempt to commit offence), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 452 (house-trespass), and 323 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
According to the police, Sharma, a resident of a Greater Noida village, was previously booked at a different station for illegally selling liquor, along with his father, a few years ago.
What Happened On 27 October?
The incident took place at around 5:15 am on 27 October morning, after the 19-year-old woman ordered milk and eggs on the BlinkIt delivery app, police told The Quint.
The survivor's brother-in-law owned the apartment, and she was staying there temporarily
Police officials said that the 19-year-old was alone in the house, taking care of the apartment and her sister's pets, as the rest of the family had gone out of town the previous night.
"While delivering the order, Sumit (accused) realised that the girl was alone in the house. He then left. But it seems like he was in the same tower for some time before ringing her doorbell again. The girl, meanwhile, was boiling milk in the kitchen. He then forced himself inside the house and took a knife from the kitchen, threatened her, and attempted to rape and sexually assault her."A police official privy to the investigation said.
However, there is no clarity on how long he waited before he forced himself inside the survivor's apartment. Police officials added that the accused was recorded entering and exiting the society by the CCTV cameras at the gates.
"The woman ran to the balcony and began to scream and raise alarm, but no one could hear her cries for a while, as most were presumably asleep. But he managed to escape from the apartment before neighbours reached the house."Police official told The Quint
"The woman then called her family members and the police. A police team arrived on the scene and took a written complaint from her," the above-mentioned official added.
'Snatched Pistol, Tried To Run Away': Police
According to police officials, five teams were formed to arrest the accused, who was on the run.
“During the investigation, we received information that Sharma was at his older brother’s rented house in Badalpur. On the basis of a tip-off, he was held in Khairpur village, near Greater Noida, at 9:30 am on Sunday. However, when he was being brought to the Bisrakh police station, he snatched the pistol of a policeman and managed to escape," a police official told The Quint.
"Soon, other police teams were alerted, and a combing operation was launched. When found again by a police team, the accused opened fire on them, prompting retaliatory action in which he suffered a gunshot on his leg, and was taken into custody once again and was taken to a local hospital for treatment," the official added.
According to the police, the accused had joined BlinkIt four months ago. His older brother, Manoj Pandit, who also used to work at the e-commerce company, is also a history sheeter and is involved in several cases registered at Badalpur police station, they added.
The Noida police also said that a notice was issued to BlinkIt on 30 October as to why the accused's police verification was not done before hiring him. No response has been received as yet, they said.
Meanwhile, a BlinkIt spokesperson told The Quint: "We have been in touch with the authorities to cooperate with the investigation. We conduct thorough background verifications while onboarding delivery partners and have a zero-tolerance policy."
The delivery partner's ID has also been terminated and handed over to the police officials, BlinkIt added.
While the accused was sent to judicial custody on Monday, the police are in the process of recording the survivor's statement under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) on Tuesday, 31 October.
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