Gurgaon cops in hot pursuit, SUV stalled in mud: How 23-year-old endured Leopard Trail abduction ordeal

GURGAON: A 23-year-old woman was abducted in the early hours of Sunday from Leopard Trail, a popular picnic spot in the Aravalis, by a food vendor, Gaurav Bhati (25), who shoved her into a borrowed Scorpio and drove around the city as police trailed him.

The chase ended about an hour later when the SUV got stuck in mud at Pandala village, forcing Bhati to flee on foot. He has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and snatching, with police awaiting the woman’s magisterial statement before potentially adding sexual assault charges.

How event unfolded

• The woman and her employer had gone for a late-night stroll along a narrow, winding road in the forested area around 3 am on Sunday. They were near their parked car when a youth approached them.
• The man snatched the woman’s mobile phone and ran towards the hills, preventing her from calling for help.
• When she tried to chase him, the accused allegedly overpowered her, dragged her into a Scorpio he was driving, and locked the doors, despite her colleague’s attempts to intervene.
• Her employer immediately alerted the police and provided detailed information about the Scorpio, including its registration and description.
• Bhati drove the woman through the forested area and the city, moving in random directions. However, the Scorpio got stuck in a pit in a village as its tyres sank into mud, giving the victim a brief chance to scream for help, prompting the accused to flee on foot.
• Police teams tracked the SUV using the woman’s phone location, and the victim was rescued unharmed near the spot where the vehicle stalled.
• The Scorpio’s registration details led authorities to the owner, who confirmed that Bhati had borrowed the car under the pretext of buying liquor.
• Three separate police teams were mobilized to trace Bhati, and he was arrested within a few hours.
• Investigations revealed that Bhati was intoxicated during the crime. During a crime scene recreation, he attempted to escape, fell in rugged terrain, and sustained a fractured right leg and facial injuries. He was hospitalised under custody before being produced in court.

Bhati had borrowed the SUV from another food vendor, claiming he needed it to buy liquor. Three police teams traced and arrested him within hours. A forensic team collected evidence, and location data is being analysed to reconstruct the sequence of events.

Police said a medical examination confirmed Bhati was intoxicated during the crime. During a crime scene recreation in the hills, he tried to escape, tripped on rugged terrain, and sustained a fractured right leg and facial injuries. He was hospitalised under custody and later produced before a local court, which remanded him in judicial custody.

The FIR initially registered under BNS sections 137(2) (kidnapping) and 304(2) (snatching) was later updated to include charges of custodial escape and obstructing a public servant in the discharge of official duties.