Two Russian girls, who escaped an alleged rape attempt by a taxi driver at Anjuna beach here, knocked doors of locals only to be turned down their request for help while being chased by the accused.
In a complaint filed with Anjuna police yesterday, Olga Tyurina, 29, and Irina Babayan, 25, said the taxi driver tried to rape them at an isolated spot in the beach, however they escaped from him and ran away towards a cluster of houses.
"When the driver threatened us, we immediately got down from the car and started running. He removed a baseball bat from the car and hit my right leg, but we still managed to run," Olga said in her statement to the police.
We ran towards some houses and knocked the door of one them and requested the occupants to call the police, however, "nobody came out from the house and we heard someone from inside asking us to go away. We then started running through
the field to the other houses for help", they said.
The complaint states that driver Pramod Shirodkar was following them and he was joined by two motorcycle-borne people, possibly his accomplices.
"We lied down under a tree and therefore the driver could not find us. They went on searching as we waited for the sunrise," the complaint said. The girls, who were returning from a discotheque yesterday at Saligao village had hired a taxi to go back to their hotel at Baga.
According to the police complaint, the taxi driver drove through different streets and after about 40 minutes, when the girls realised that he was misleading them, they questioned him following which the driver asked for Rs1,000 or sex instead of Rs300, which was decided as the fare.
The girls then warned the driver of calling police, but he said he was not afraid of police and his friend is a 'mafia', according to the complaint.
"We will take girls' statement in Russian language and will forward it to the consulate for further action," Vikram Varma, lawyer representing Consul General of Russian Federation in Mumbai, told PTI.
Police today arrested the driver, while the other two accomplices are still at large.
Anjuna Police have charged the accused under section 509, 323 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for eve teasing, causing hurt and threat.
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