Pune:
The issue of safety of women employees working in city-based business process outsourcing (BPO) units has once again come into focus with the recent incident of a 22-year-old staffer from the Wipro BPO in Hinjewadi narrowly escaping possible abduction by unidentified cab drivers in a vehicle bearing the company's logo. The culprits, who hastily drove away, have not yet been traced by the police.
The incident highlights the need for women staffers to be doubly alert even if approached by official cabs, especially occupied by two men and to necessarily demand to see the necessary identification and company travel roster.
This incident assumes significance in the light of the recent cases of women staffers from the IT-BPO sector who have been raped and murdered by criminals in the guise of cab drivers.
According to the Pimpri police, the incident took place on September 19 around 3.30 pm near Nodal Point, Deluxe Chowk in Pimpri, when the victim was approached by a pick-up cab bearing her company's logo.
When the woman saw two men in the cab, she grew suspicious and asked for their identity card and the company's roster. The men were reportedly in an inebriated state and could not furnish the documents, prompting her to raise an alarm. Seeing a group of people coming towards the cab, the driver fled in the vehicle.
According to inspector Nandakumar Pinjan of the Pimpri police station, the company submitted a written complaint to the Hinjewadi police station on September 23. The case was later transferred to the Pimpri police station.
Pinjan told DNA on Saturday, "The company, in its written complaint, expressed concern about the safety of women staff in the area. It also identified a cab service called Siddhi Enterprises, owned by Aziz Shaikh, which was supposed to be on duty and send cab at that time and on that day."
According to Pinjan, the Pimpri police have interrogated Shaikh and scrutinised 91 cabs that serve the Wipro BPO. "We have also shown photographs of history sheeters to the lady staffer, but she has not been able to identify any person yet. Unfortunately, she is not able to tell us the vehicle number either," Pinjan said.
However, the inspector admitted that his team had got a few leads and were confident of nabbing the culprits soon.
When contacted in Bangalore on Friday, chief information officer of Wipro Technologies, Laxman K Badiga, told DNA, "Wipro takes the safety and security of its employees very seriously. We have invested considerable time and energy in creating awareness about initiatives and arrangements in this area to our employees by way of regular awareness mailers and programmes for employees, drivers and vendors."
"Some of these initiatives include monitoring movement of cabs through GPS, deployment of quick reaction team and providing assistance through 24x7 helplines. In this particular case, the vendor was appropriately informed and the services of the driver in question were terminated."
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