Driver seemed reluctant to pass nakabandi: Police

18.07.2016, Kolkata: The fate of the speech-and-hearing impaired woman, who was rescued by police from a vehicle at Garden Reach on Friday evening, could have been a lot worse had the cops not been vigilant and set up a surprise checkpoint. In fact, the sheer look of horror etched on her face raised the cops' suspicion and they swung into action.

It is still not clear if the 35-year-old woman was raped or the police managed to save her in the nick of time. With the woman unable to give any statement, the police are waiting for the medical report. Investigators on Sunday took the help of experts to understand what the woman might have gone through after she was dragged into the vehicle at Kilkhana crossing. "The car suddenly stopped before the nakabandi. It seemed the driver did not want to pass the check point," said an officer who intercepted the car at the Taratala Nature Park naka.

It was a chance occurrence that the nakabandi was set up at the point on Friday evening. "We had set up a naka the same place the day before. The locations are usually not repeated, but as there's no exact rule for choosing the place, it was decided that the checkpoint would come up on the same spot on Friday as well," said an official at the nakabandi. Officers were checking vehicles when they saw the white Tata Sumo moving slowly. "Vehicles slow down near a nakabandi, but in this case, it seemed even slower. The driver seemed reluctant to cross the naka and it looked like he was trying to take a u-turn from there," the officer added.

As the police team walked up to the vehicle, they found a person sitting at the driver's seat and the woman behind. The driver described her as "a family member". She did not react much, but the fear on her face made the cops suspect something was wrong. "Initially, we did not realize the girl was deaf and mute," the official said. "We asked the two to step out." The woman, with the help of sign language, gave the police her parents's details; after they arrived, she communicated to them about the attack. Based on it, a complaint was lodged and the motorist, Raj Ansari, was held.

Going by the complaint, the woman was walking back home around 6.30pm, when four youths pulled her into the vehicle at Kilkhana crossing and drove off. Scared of getting caught at a nakabandi, they tried to enter Taratala Nature Park area from Santoshpur side. But when they saw the checkpoint near the park, three of the accused, Md Sayem, Md Sufian and Tayab, reportedly fled. Anasari has been sent to 6-day cop custody.