24-year-old Pratibha

BANGALORE: It was 1.30 a.m. and as usual, 24-year-old Pratibha was waiting for the cab to pick her up from her house in Kumaraswamy Layout. When it arrived, the call centre executive got in, little knowing that she was walking into a fatal trap.



On Friday, the City Police recovered Pratibha's decomposed body from an isolated patch off Kanakapura Road. She was kidnapped, raped and murdered, allegedly by a taxi driver who took advantage of the pick-up facility

Provided by her company, HP.   The incident took place in the small hours of

Wednesday and the police unravelled the story on Thursday night when they arrested the driver, Shivakumar. He had claimed to be a replacement to the regular driver and took the victim to a secluded area where he murdered her.



Pratibha's mother-in-law recalled the moments when she saw Pratibha to the door that night. §Pratibha talked to the driver for a few minutes and then got into the vehicle. We thought there must have been some confusion as she received a call from a driver who said that the company in place of another driver sent him.. He also took down our residence address.



Five minutes after they left home, Pratibha, as usual, called her husband Pavan Shetty and told him that she was on her way to the office, and was safe. But 10 minutes later, Pratibha received a call from her regular taxi driver Jagadish, asking her if she was not working that day, because he did not find her at her home when he went there.



Pratibha, apparently, said that she was already in a taxi with driver Shivakumar. When Jagadish said that he had not asked anyone to pick her up, she panicked and gave the mobile phone to Shivakumar. Believing Shivakumar's claim that the company had sent him, Jagadish carried on with his route, picking up other employees. At around 5 p.m., when Pratibha did not return home, her uncle Srinivas became worried and enquired with her office, only to be told that she had not come for work.



He immediately informed Pavan and they registered a kidnap complaint against the driver at Kumaraswamy Layout police station. Police Inspector Devaiah

took up the investigation and interrogated Jagadish first.   The driver

could only say that he spoke to someone called Shivakumar on the phone, but could not identify him.. The police obtained a printout of Pratibha's mobile phone logs and zeroed in on one number from which she had received a call before she left home.



Police traced the number and arrived at the address of SRS Travels.

Shivakumar was arrested on Thursday evening. On interrogation, he allegedly

confessed to have raped her and then killed her.   Sadly, Pratibha

unwittingly walked into the trap. From Shivakumar's mobile phone records police found that he had previously called two other women employees with same ruse. One woman had suspected him and asked for his identity proof and the HP tag while the other had already taken the regular cab.



 THE CAB TO HELL



 * Wednesday 1.15 a.m. Pratibha answers a telephone call from driver

  Shivakumar and gives her residence address to him

 * 1.20 a.m. Waits outside her house along with her mother-in-law and

  Sister-in-law

 * 1.30 a.m. Cab arrives. Pratibha has a conversation with the driver  for

  three minutes, then gets into the car

 * 1.33 a.m. Cab leaves

 * 1.40 a.m. Pratibha telephones her husband, says she's safe

 * 1.45 a.m. Driver Jagadish telephones Pratibha on her mobile, says he did not ask anyone to pick her up. He talks to

       Shivakumar after which the latter switches off the cell

 * 2 a.m. Shivakumar drives the vehicle towards Anjanapura

 * Between 2 a.m. and 3.45 a.m. Shivakumar rapes, and then kills

  Pratibha. Takes Rs 300 cash, her bag and mobile phone, returns home

 * 5 p.m. Pratibha's uncle Srinivas lodges a kidnap case with  Kumaraswamy

  Layout police

 * Thursday evening. Police trace Shivakumar, arrest him

 * Friday morning. Shivakumar confesses the crime, takes police to  lonely patch near Anjanapura where he killed Pratibha (See attached