Bengaluru: Adding to the list of instances of cab drivers assaulting their women passengers, another incidence has popped up where a driver attached to Ola, attempted to hurl his slipper at his passenger.
The incident is reported to have taken place near SBM Circle along K G Road on July 10, when a college student and her mother had booked a cab to Malleshwaram. Without the notice of the app user, the cab driver had started the meter even before reaching the pickup spot. The passenger was confused when she got a message from Ola saying that waiting charges would be applicable, as the cab had not yet picked them up from their location. Upon the driver’s arrival, the passenger confronted him, which is when he began abusing her and even tried to throw his slipper at her.
The driver was arrested following a complaint filed by the college student with the Upparpet Police.
The police also found that the accused Mahadeva, was not the owner of the vehicle but worked for a man named Vishal Parekh. Police later found out from Mahadeva that the owner of the car had appointed him as the driver and issued a notice to Ola regarding the same.
The short gap between these incidences prompted Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi to make a series of tweets saying: “This is the third case of harassment of a woman passenger by a cab driver in #Bengaluru, in less than a month. My directions to @CPBlr to invoke criminal liability of cab aggregators like @Olacabs and @Uber_India has had no effect…
I am worried about how the #Karnataka government is totally ignoring women’s safety in the city. Shri H.D. Kumaraswamy, @CMofKarnataka, should pay attention to this critical issue.”
