The ‘Disha’ mobile app has once again come to the rescue of a woman in distress, this time in the national capital of New Delhi.

Aspiring to be a teacher, the middle-aged woman Meenakshi (name changed) boarded a train alone from Vijayawada to New Delhi on September 10 for writing a qualification test.

She reportedly befriended a couple on the train, who upon reaching the destination hired an autorickshaw for her. However, she later found that the couple allegedly had a nexus with the driver and handpicked the cab, ostensibly with a malafide intention to rob her.

“Sensing trouble, she rang up her New Delhi-based friend and connected the driver, who too found his ‘coded’ conversation strange and alerted her to alight the vehicle. It was then she snatched back her mobile phone, got down from the vehicle and pressed the SOS button on the Disha app,” Superintendent of Police K.K.N. Anburajan told the media on Tuesday, while appreciating the woman for her presence of mind.

Responding to the SOS, a police official in the Deputy Superintendent cadre contacted Meenakshi and guided her to reach the examination centre with the help of a Delhi-based NGO ‘Mission Mukthi Foundation’. The woman finally boarded the Swarna Jayanti Express at H. Nizamuddin station, reached Vijayawada and finally to her home district of Kadapa on Monday night.

Even as she thanked the police department for the ‘timely help’, Mr. Anburajan dubbed the Disha app a ‘lethal weapon’ in the hands of those in distress and appealed to womenfolk to download the same on their smartphones.