Chandrima at Lake police station on Monday evening. Picture courtesy STAR Ananda

A can of deodorant helped a 21-year-old law student escape from the clutches of a driver who “abducted”, assaulted and robbed her along with another female passenger after giving them a lift on Monday.

Chandrima Gupta, a third-year student of Hazra Law College, told police that she sprayed deodorant in the driver’s eyes and got off the blue Maruti A-Star at the Lake Gardens bridge, after which the car sped away with the other woman.

“The driver had a knife, with which he slashed my co-passenger. I think she was seriously injured, which is why she couldn’t fight back and flee,” she said.

Chandrima, who lives in Salt Lake’s IA Block as a paying guest, had hailed the “shuttle car” in front of AMRI Hospitals around 11.30am to go to college. The other passenger was in the backseat when she got into the car.

Thumbing a ride in private cars is a common practice in Salt Lake where residents struggle to find transport to head into the city.

Chandrima told investigators that she suspected the driver was up to something when she saw him repeatedly stealing a glance at her co-passenger in the rear-view mirror.

The driver took a left turn from the Gariahat crossing instead of right, citing a traffic snarl. “By the time we reached Golpark, me and my co-passenger were banging on the tinted windows, but he continued driving. We couldn’t open the power windows as he had locked them,” Chandrima recalled.

The law student punched the driver when the car crossed Southern Avenue, prompting him to stop and take out his knife. “I used my deodorant after he slashed my co-passenger and took away my cellphone and gold ring,” she said.

Chandrima, whose family lives at Halisahar in North 24-Parganas, took a taxi back to Salt Lake and lodged an FIR with Lake police station in the evening. “She has given us a partial registration number,” an investigator said.