Writhing in pain, Aarti Devi murmured: "He just threw me out of the auto-rickshaw and slapped me several times in front of all. How can a person behave so brutally with women?"
The 37-year-old woman was getting an X-ray of her left foot done at the Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital on Monday, a day after an auto driver assaulted her following an argument over fare.
"The pain is immense, but the hurt I feel inside is more severe. No one came to help; I saw my daughter screaming and weeping while trying to resist the attack on me," Aarti, a homemaker and resident of the Mandiri area, told The Telegraph.
Aarti and her 10-year-old daughter underwent the ordeal on Sunday afternoon in the busy Buddha Marg area.
The police have not been able to trace the driver even more than 24 hours after the incident. "His friend has been arrested and the police have identified the driver. Attempts are being made to nab him," said Ramesh Prasad Singh, Kotwali police station house officer.
Aarti Devi, whose husband Kashinath Sharma is a carpenter, said she and her daughter had reached the P&M Mall in the Patliputra area at 10am.
"We attended a programme there and went around the mall for some time," she recollected. "Around 2pm, both of us came outside the mall to get back home. As we were waiting, an auto-rickshaw with green seats and with a seating capacity of four people in the middle seat approached us. I told the driver that we wanted to go to Patna Junction and he agreed to drop us there. He asked for Rs 30 and we agreed to the fare. There were four passengers including my daughter and me. Near the Gardiner Hospital at Income Tax roundabout, the vehicle stopped and the other two passengers got down. The driver then took the Buddha Marg and stopped near the Karbigahiya flyover. Patna Junction is about 700 metres away from that point. But the driver refused to go further and told us to get out of the vehicle."
When the mother and daughter refused to budge before Patna Junction, the driver "immediately started a heated altercation and we too responded," Aarti said. "We agreed to get out of the auto-rickshaw but insisted that he should then get Rs 20 and not Rs 30. At this, the man became infuriated and started abusing us verbally. I had a bag with me; he just snatched it and threw it on the road and pulled me out of the vehicle. I almost fell but somehow regained by balance. Before I could react, the driver slapped me hard near my neck. For a moment, everything was dark and my terrified daughter began to scream and shout, which attracted many people as well as some auto-rickshaw drivers. As she (her daughter) ran to and fro trying to collect the bag and the contents in it, I caught hold of the driver by his neck but he again shoved me down. By then, many people came to witness the squabble and some of them protested, asking the driver to stop assaulting me."
Seeing the crowd swell, the driver sensed trouble.
"Another auto-rickshaw driver had come to the scene and he whispered something after which the man cooled down a bit and agreed to drop us to the station," Aarti added. "I got into the vehicle and before my daughter could get inside too he just started off and took me towards the Karbigahiya flyover. As my daughter started running to catch the vehicle, the driver stopped the auto-rickshaw suddenly. He now was at a little distance away from the crowd. He just caught hold of my arms and hurled me out of the vehicle. As I fell off and rolled a bit, he fled taking the flyover. The other driver told me to forget all this but by that time the police had arrived and upon my complaint arrested the man who had helped the auto-driver escape. Later, I was taken to the Kotwali police station and a complaint was lodged. The doctors tell me that my left leg is badly hurt and I need bed rest."
