The Hindu : Front Page : Safety issues in BPO sector to the fore

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 17, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

Safety issues in BPO sector to the fore

Staff Reporter

Driver collected employee on false pretences at 2 a.m.

SHOCK AND GRIEF: Murder victim Prathiba's husband Pavan waiting for her body to be handed over after post-mortem at the Kempe Gowda Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangalore on Friday. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

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

Prathiba 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.

A crucial call

Meanwhile, 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.

Police notified

Prathiba'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 Prathiba had not turned up for work since Tuesday. Thereupon he called her husband at his workplace, who told the uncle Prathiba 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. A native of Nanjapura village in Ramanagaram taluk in Bangalore Rural district, he is married.

`Impersonation'

UNI reports:

Hewlett Packard on Friday expressed shock at the rape and murder of its employee, and said the driver who collected Prathiba from her house was ``unauthorised'' to do so and he impersonated the regular shift driver. The company has announced increased security measures.

In a release here, Amit Sircar of HP Global Delivery Application Services' Communications and Customer Operations described the rape and murder as an ``extremely unfortunate and tragic incident''.

Explaining the security measures for employees' protection, he said a monthly roster is provided to each employee on his or her car number and driver's cellphone number. The procedure followed was for the car driver to give employees a missed call. Only then do employees board cars, which bear HP stickers. Cab drivers carry identity cards.

Mr. Sircar said that in the wake of the incident, the company is increasing security measures. The monthly roster will ensure that a male employee will be picked up first and dropped last. A security guard will accompany women employees, he added.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) M.N. Reddy has agreed to arrange for background checks of all drivers and supervisors a pre-requisite for hiring.

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