A young life cut short, abruptly

Jyotikumari Ramanand Choudhari, a 22-year-old Wipro BPO staffer living at Pashan, was abducted, gang raped and murdered by a cabbie who was to ferry her from home to office and a friend of his on November 1, 2007.

A native of Gorakhpur, Jyotikumari has done BSc before joining Wipro BPO. She lived in Pashan with her sister and brother-in-law since 2001.

It was the first case of rape and murder of a BPO employee in the state and second in the country. Jyotikumari was killed within months after Pratibha Shrikant Murty, a BPO employee from Bangalore, was raped and murdered by cab driver.

Jyotikumari left home around 10.30 pm on the fateful day and boarded the cab on November 1, 2007 to reach office. Purushottam Borate was driving the cab and his friend Pradeep Kokade was also on board. One of her friends tried calling her up, but the call got abruptly disrupted.

The duo whisked her away to Gahunje village near Mumbai-Pune expressway where she was gang-raped.

Then they strangulated her with a scarf. They also bashed her head and face with boulders.

Later, Jyotikumari’s friend who had tried calling her informed her sister about the incident. When she failed to return home on November 2 morning, her brother in-law lodged a missing person’s case at Chatuhshrungi police station.

Meanwhile, her body was recovered by Talegaon Dabhade police. On a tip-off, the Chatuhshrungi police showed the body to Jyotikumari’s sister and brother-in-law. A case of kidnap, gang rape, murder and criminal conspiracy was filed at Chatuhshrungi police station after Jyotikumari’s body was identified by her relatives.

Later, Borate and Kokade were arrested by the Chatuhshrungi police.