NEW DELHI: A
cabbie using an
Uber car was
arrested after he allegedly
masturbated while
driving a
woman passenger. When he also tried to
avoid the
scheduled route for the trip, the woman raised an alarm and alerted policemen at a barricade near
Janpath. The driver, who had allowed her to disembark and then fled from the spot, was later intercepted at a checkpost.
Police discovered that the man was driving his friend’s car using the Uber platform and did not hold a driving licence. Madhur Verma, DCP (New Delhi), said that a case under Section 509 of IPC dealing with “word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman” was registered against the driver. “In our investigation, we found he had submitted a fake licence to Uber and had been driving with it. He was allowed to drive without his antecedents being verified,” said Verma.
The woman hired the cab from IGI Airport on April 15. “The driver took the designated route up to the Dandi March statue on Sardar Patel Marg, where he suddenly took a diversion from South Avenue claiming the road taken would be free of traffic jams,” narrated the passenger.
The woman disclosed to TOI her bewilderment at the driver constantly looking down while he was driving. “I thought he had his mobile phone on his lap and was looking at it for navigation help. It was when I peeked to see why he had begun veering from the route that I noticed his trousers were pulled down and he was masturbating while driving,” she said.
The car had reached Janpath by then and she asked the cab driver to pull over. But he kept requesting her to complete the ride. The man finally stopped the vehicle. After he left having deducted the fare from her account, the woman informed the police control room, and a team from the South Avenue police station reached her. On her complaint, the cops alerted the checkposts nearby to stop the car.
Reacting to the incident, Uber officials termed the cabbie’s act “deplorable” and something “no one should ever have to go through”. A spokesperson of the cab-hailing company said, “We are working with the local authorities to support their investigation in all ways possible.”
