Blackmail selfie, chemical spray, fake parcel: How predator posing as delivery agent drugged, raped Pune techie in her flat; police deploy 10 teams to trace accused

PUNE: A man, posing as a courier delivery agent, entered a 22-year-old data scientist's 11th floor rented flat in a residential society in Kondhwa on Wednesday evening, sprayed some chemical on her face and allegedly raped her."He also used the woman's cellphone to click a selfie with her, cropped his image and keyed in a message threatening her that he would upload the photograph on social media if she disclosed the incident to anyone," deputy commissioner of police (Zone IV) Rajkumar Shinde told TOI on Thursday. "We have seen the cropped selfie image and the message on the survivor's phone after collecting the gadget from her," he said.The woman, who has a BE degree in data science, works with an IT firm in Kalyaninagar and has been staying with her younger brother (20) in the rented flat since 2022, an office-bearer of the society told TOI.

The society is made up of a single 11-storey building divided into ‘A', ‘B' and ‘C' wings. It has a single entrance gate with a security cabin having two guards each in the morning and night shifts and also has an app for community and safety management of the residents.

The woman and her brother are from Akola. They shifted to Pune a few years ago for employment. Her brother had gone to Akola, and she was alone in the flat when the "delivery agent" came calling, police said.

DCP Shinde said: "The woman said in her complaint that she responded to the doorbell around 7.15pm and found a man, who claimed to be from a courier firm, waiting. The man told her that he needs to deliver a parcel from a bank. He asked her to acknowledge receipt of the parcel by signing on a delivery sheet he was carrying, and told her that he had forgotten his pen. When the woman went in to bring the pen, the man seized the moment to step in and bolted the door from inside before using the spray on her face.

"He said: "The woman regained consciousness around 8.30pm and sensed something wrong was done to her. She alerted her relatives, who, in turn, informed the police. She has been admitted to a govt hospital for medical examination. Our forensic experts will examine what kind of chemical substance the intruder used to spray on her face. For now, 10 teams from the Kondhwa police and the city crime branch have been deployed to work on leads to arrest the culprit.

"Experts visited the crime scene and collected forensic evidence. A spot panchnama was drawn. A dog squad was pressed into service, but it did not pick up the trail of the culprit, police said."We have identified 10 delivery agents from courier and e-commerce firms and food delivery services, who visited the society on Wednesday and are verifying them," said an officer, who is part of the probe. The police have registered a case relating to offences punishable under sections 64 (rape), 77 (voyeurism) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar told TOI: "We have collected the survivor's oral and nasal swab to establish the chemical substance alleged to have been used to render the survivor unconscious. We are certain about detecting the case soon and have roped in all our resources considering the nature and gravity of the crime."Preliminary investigation revealed that the intruder did not make an entry in the visitors' register maintained by the society.

"We are questioning the society residents and security guards and also pursuing technical leads to identify, trace and nab the culprit," additional commissioner of police (Crime) Pankaj Deshmukh said. The guards on duty have so far maintained that there was no entry or exit of any person around the time of the incident nor any outsider has been spotted in CCTV covering the passage leading to the ‘A' wing where the survivor stays.A society office bearer told TOI at the site: "The brother-sister duo share a cordial relationship with all our members and have been paying their rent on time to the flat owner, who lives in Mumbai. The society is covered by two CCTV cameras. The 'A' wing, where the incident occurred, has CCTV cameras covering the passage, parts of the other wings and the parking area."He said: "We have installed a mobile application, a visitor management facility, to regulate entry on the society premises.

Each member and tenant of the society has this application on their mobiles. We studied all the entries and exits on the application and realised that no delivery persons — like food delivery, quick commerce or e-commerce — entered the society when the incident occurred. We have provided all details of the cellphone application and CCTV footage to the police.

"The office-bearer added: "Only one thing could have happened. A delivery person, who has four or five deliveries to make in different flats, could have entered the society and then might have gone to the woman's flat. It does not require a separate entry on the mobile application when it comes to multiple deliveries."(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)