New Delhi, Aug. 28: Being a chauffeur to the rich and famous often entails ending up at the driving wheel of their masters' crimes.

Shamwar Pinturam Rai, the 43-year-old driver of Indrani Mukerjea who is being questioned in the murder of Sheena Bora, is the latest in a string of such casualities after Ashok Singh, the driver of actor Salman Khan, and Bansilal Joshi, the driver of Mukesh Ambani's younger son Akash.

Ashok had taken responsibility for running over pavement dwellers sleeping in front of a Bandra bakery in 2002. After the actor's conviction, he now faces perjury charges.

Joshi had surrendered to the police in connection with an accident in Mumbai in 2004, although witnesses told the police that a young boy, suspected to be Akash, had been at the wheel.

"A driver's job is perhaps the most unsafe job these days," said Savita Singh, the founder-director of the School of Gender and Development Studies, Ignou.

"A driver, perhaps, knows more about you than your kin - he knows where you go, who you speak with and what you do on an hourly basis. He is the one staff member who an employer is likely to be closest to.

"Conversely, the driver enjoys the power of his powerful boss. He gets bragging rights and is his boss's biggest sycophant."

Rai, who worked as Indrani's driver for three years before he was sacked six months ago, was paid a monthly salary of Rs 12,000, his wife Sharda told reporters yesterday. She said she had little idea of who her husband was working for.

"My husband is innocent and these rich people are so powerful. He is being trapped in this murder case," she said at their Mumbai home.

Psychologist Rajat Mitra said the use of drivers by criminal gangs to gather information was not new. But having a driver as an accomplice who helped with and even took the blame for a powerful employer's crime was something that had evolved with the changing times.

"For any driver, two things are extremely important: which car they are driving and who they are driving. They are the only employees of a household who have a peer group and all they discuss is where they have gone all day with their employers. They, in fact, call themselves 'pilots' and not drivers," Mitra said.

"The drivers derive their power from their rich and famous bosses. They themselves feel invisible because they think their bosses will never get caught or they will never let anything happen to them."

Both Singh and Mitra said a driver's willingness to be a participant in a crime was directly linked to the power of his employer.

"In some cases, they might not have a choice. They do what the employer tells them because of the threat perception from someone who is powerful," Singh said.

"Then, there is the allurement of financial benefit. For a crime they think they might never get caught for, they might be paid an amount they wouldn't be able to earn throughout their lives."

Mitra said it was the "aura of invincibility" associated with powerful bosses that was key. "Loyalty" was hardly, if ever, a reason why a driver would take the blame or participate in an employer's crime.