“Mujhe yahaan nahi rehna. Main Mumbai jaana chaahti hoon, apne bacchon ke paas. (I don’t want to live here. I want to go back to my home in Mumbai, to my children),” said the 23-year-old woman who was allegedly raped in HSR Layout here on Saturday night.
When Express visited the government hospital where the victim Asmeena (name changed) was undergoing treatment, the traumatised woman was flanked by HSR Layout police.
Police sources said she was a sex worker brought from Mumbai. She had sutures on her chin, a bruised nose and multiple fractures on her body, including her ankles.
Asmeena, who claims to have come to the city for sightseeing with her sister just 15 days ago, said the incident happened in a matter of minutes. “I was walking on the road around 9 pm in Bellandur, when a group of men came and forcibly picked me up. They took me to a building in an area I didn’t know.
“The men forced themselves on me. They asked me to cooperate, but I resisted. After the ensuing altercation, they pushed me off the building from a height,” she said. In the fall, she dislocated her right thigh bone and suffered bruises on her hands.
Asmeena was brought to the hospital around 8 am on Sunday, but she initially refused to give samples for examination in the gynaecology ward, said a duty doctor in the emergency ward. “She has visible bruises that suggest assault,” the doctor said.
Asmeena now wants to see her kids and get back to work. “If I was able to walk, I would have reached Mumbai by now. I don’t want to get into this mess.”
Despite the trauma, she said she can clearly recollect the faces of those who assaulted her. “If I see them, I am sure I can identify them,” she said.
Her sister said she was at their rented house in Bellandur when the incident is said to have happened and didn’t know about it till Sunday. “This morning, policemen knocked on my door and informed me about the incident. I sought the help of a neighbour, an autorickshaw driver, to reach the hospital,” she said.