Safety questions in BPO sector to the fore

Safety questions in BPO sector to the fore

Staff Reporter

Driver picked up employee on false pretences at 2 a.m.

BANGALORE: The chilling details of how a criminal kidnapped and murdered call centre employee Prathibha have raised a number of questions with regard to safety in the time of business process outsourcing and the logistic challenges involved.

Prathibha regularly worked in the 3 a.m. to 1 p.m. shift. A driver named Jagadish engaged by the call centre used to collect her from home for the 25-km trip to the workplace. On December 13, another driver, Shiva Kumar, called Prathiba on her mobile phone saying that Jagadish was not coming to work and so he would take her to the office. He took the address of her house and collected her at 2 a.m. He took her towards Kanakapura Road instead of Electronics City, saying he had to pick up another employee. The regular driver Jagadish telephoned her saying that he would be outside her house in a few minutes. Told by Prathiba that another driver had picked her up, Jagadish spoke to Shiva Kumar, who told Jagadish that he was the driver of the "405" route. He claimed that the company officials had asked him to pick up employees from Kumaraswamy Layout and surrounding areas.

Later, Shiva Kumar took Prathiba to an isolated area in Anjanapura, threatened her with a knife and tried to molest her. When she resisted, he dragged her into a ditch, raped her, and slit her throat. He robbed Rs. 300 in cash and a mobile phone that she carried, the police said. This spot was hardly 5 km from her house. It falls in the Thalghatpura police station limits.

Prathibha's maternal uncle Sreenivasa came to visit his niece on Wednesday evening, and not finding her at home, at 15th Cross, Kumaraswamy Layout, called the company. He was told that Pratibha had not turned up for work since Tuesday. Thereupon he called her husband at his workplace, who told the uncle Prathibha had left for work the previous night. He lodged a complaint with the Kumaraswamy Layout police station.

Acting on the complaint, the police questioned Jagadish, who told them that another driver had picked up Prathiba.

The police obtained the details of the call traffic to Prathiba's mobile phone and traced Shiva Kumar.

Shiva Kumar, who had by then joined another firm, confessed to the crime, the police said.