While delivering the order, 17-yr-old accused realised the victim was alone; he dragged her to the kitchen and hit her, but her shouts scared him enough to flee; was later arrested
Ordering a meal proved to be an ordeal for a 25-year-old woman in Worli, when a pizza boy tried to rape her in her house. According to the police, had the girl not resisted and shouted the way she did, the boy would not have let go.
The Chovisam Pizza outlet at Laxmi Narayan Tower, Sayani Road in Prabhadevi, where the accused, a minor, worked as a delivery boy
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The woman, a resident of the government quarters near Worli police station on Dr Annie Besant Road, stays with an aunt. Around 7.45 pm on Tuesday, she decided to call for a pizza from a local vendor, Chovisam Pizza, which has an outlet in Laxmi Narayan Tower on Sayani Road in Prabhadevi. At the time, her aunt was in Pune.
Around 8.30 pm, the delivery boy showed up at her doorstep. But after giving her the order of pizza, garlic bread and soft drink, he said he’d be back with the chilli flakes that he had forgotten in his bike. “He returned and, seeing that the young woman was alone, allegedly pushed her inside and shut the door behind him,” said Vinayak Deshmukh, deputy commissioner of police, Zone III.
When the woman resisted, he dragged her to the kitchen and gashed her wrist with a knife. He then picked up a rolling pin and smacked it on her head, cops said. “When the victim began screaming, he got afraid and fled the spot. The woman was bleeding. Neighbours reached the spot and took her to Poddar Hospital in Worli, from where she was shifted to Nair Hospital at Mumbai Central,” said Deshmukh.
The victim, who hails from Wardha in western Maharashtra, had moved to her aunt’s place in the city to find a job. She is an engineer. Meanwhile, the police traced the owner of Chovisam Pizza, Swapnil Parab, a resident of Worli Koliwada, and arrested the accused. “The boy is 17 years old and has studied till Std VIII. Realising that the girl was alone, he tried taking advantage of the situation, but was taken by surprise with the girl’s defiance and had to flee when she started shouting for help,” said senior inspector Deepak Pawar of Worli police station.
Cops advise caution
The police said the pizza boy had dropped pamphlets a day before at colonies in the locality, offering cheap rates. “People should be careful before ordering food from small restaurants as they themselves don’t keep a record of their employees or train them,” cops said. “The employee had joined us 20 days ago. I was trying to reach him again and again, but he did not answer my calls. When he returned from the place, he did not tell me anything,” said the pizza joint owner Parab.
The boy has been booked under IPC sections 376 (rape), 511 (attempt to commit grave offence) and 507 (criminal intimidation). He was produced in a local court yesterday and remanded in a children’s home. The police said they might also book the owner of the pizza outlet for letting a minor drive the delivery bike, pending further investigations.
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