Bengaluru rape accused sent to judicial custody

A mini-bus driver, accused of raping an assistant nurse in the moving vehicle, and its cleaner who abetted the crime, were on Saturday sent to judicial custody till November 20, police said.

A city sessions court remanded driver Ravi (26) and cleaner Manjunath (19) to 14 days in judicial custody for investigation in the case registered against them on a complaint filed by the 19-year-old woman on Friday, Bengaluru Rural Superintendent of Police S.R. Ramesh told reporters.

The two were arrested on Friday, and the mini bus was seized at Hoskote, about 30 km from the city, in a raid carried by a team of the rural police.

"We will interrogate the accused on the basis of the first information report (FIR) registered against them and file a charge sheet in the court after ascertaining the crime from the woman's medical report," Ramesh said.

According to the FIR, after the woman boarded the empty mini bus at Hoskote to go for work on Thursday, Ravi asked the cleaner to drive the bus and raped her while it was on the move and dumped her later on the roadside later.

The driver hails from Shivamogga, about 260 km from here, while the cleaner is from Chintamani in Kolar district, about 90 km from here.

The incident took place a month after a 23-year-old back office woman employee was gang-raped by a driver and a cleaner in a moving van on October 3, in which the accused have also been arrested.