In the aftermath of the Bengaluru gangrape, here are the unanswered questions hanging over the city

By MA Deviah Another day, another rape. What is distressing is the numbing sameness of these crimes. The victim is invariably a BPO or IT company staffer, commuting to or from office at night, who becomes a victim to predatory drivers. It’s happened before and, going by the fact that little is done about it, will happen again. [caption id=“attachment_2458840” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Last Saturday’s rape of a BPO staffer in Bengaluru followed a tragically predictable script. She was returning home from office after a hard day’s work. She unsuspectingly boarded a Tempo Traveller at Bomanahalli Junction, south of the city. Tempo Travellers are the preferred vehicles to ferry BPO employees; there are tens of thousands of them in the city. Instead of taking her to her destination a few kilometres down the road, she was taken to a lonely spot and raped by the driver and his companion. She was then dropped off, and the pair drove away. To its immense credit, the Bengaluru police, based on the victim’s sketchy description, traced the vehicle and arrested both rapists by Tuesday. The two, cousins named Yogesh and Sunil, are from Chickmagalur district. The Tempo Traveller belonged to a person named Shankar, who had attached the vehicle to SRS Travels, which in turn provides transport services to BPO companies. Hopefully, these two will face the full force of the new anti-rape laws. But, the case raises several questions. These always come up when a rape occurs, but it’s worthwhile asking them again, because nobody seems to be doing anything about them. 1. Why was the girl taking public transport at that time of the night? The law states that women working late should be provided transport by employers. According to reports, the girl regularly used city transport buses and private buses to go home after work. On Tuesday, City Police Commissioner NS Megharikh told reporters that it was the duty of the labour department to ensure that companies followed the rules. He said companies, especially BPOs, that do not follow the rules must have their licenses revoked. The police has said it will send a notice to the victim’s employers (undisclosed by Firstpost as it might identify the victim) as to why transport was not provided. 2. Who is regulating the vehicles? Thanks to Bengaluru’s pathetic infrastructure and poor public transport, a huge volume of commuters use what, at best, can be described as unauthorised transport. Bengaluru’s large population needs to get to work and back. It is common to see commuters flagging down empty Tempo Travellers and taxis returning empty after dropping their passengers. According to newspaper reports, the city transport department, over the last five months, has checked over 75,000 Tempo Travellers in the city and registered various cases including unauthorised carrying of passengers against around 5,000 of them. Clearly, it’s not enough. These rashly-driven vehicles, while a boon for commuters, are a major problem for road users. Even after Saturday’s gang rape, business flourishes. On Tuesday night, dozens of young BPO employees were seen boarding these vehicles at Bomanahalli Junction (where the victim boarded the Tempo Traveller) to get home. Everything was back to normal. 3. Why are there so many driver rapists? Are companies insisting on security checks for contractors? Clearly not. In this case, the owner of the vehicle had attached it to SRS Travels, which provided services to a BPO. It is doubtful that security checks were done on these two by anyone along the chain. The other aspect is that this is probably a social problem. Many of these drivers come from rural areas. They spend a couple of months getting their licence and are then immediately unleashed on Bengaluru’s already overcrowded roads. Drivers are in short supply in Bengaluru and you can see posters advertising driver jobs all over the city. A driver’s job should probably be one of the most difficult to get but, in Bengaluru where demand is so high, the opposite is true. Nobody sensitises these newly relocated youth on how to behave. In fact, by the way some of them conduct themselves on the road, you have to wonder if they even know how to drive. 4. Finally, what role should the police play? All credit to the Bengaluru police for cracking this case within 72 hours. It showed exemplary efficiency. Crimes like rape and murder are difficult to prevent, especially in cases like this where other departments, notably the labour and transport departments, are not doing their work. This gang rape occurred at around the same time when a 14-year-old schoolgirl in another part of Bengaluru killed herself because the police did not register a case against two men who stripped and molested her. In this case the police need to come down harder to regulate the kind of people that drive on our roads. Employers should be forced to ensure that those working for them, including contractors, possess the highest integrity. They can do this only with the help of the police. MA Deviah is a senior journalist and communications expert. He is based in Bengaluru.