Bengaluru woman alleges cab driver harassed her

BENGALURU: In yet another incident of alleged harassment by a cab driver, a woman passenger who boarded an Uber cab was allegedly given a lesson on morality, abused and harassed by the driver, on Saturday night. The woman also alleged that despite pressing the emergency button, there was not much help from the cab aggregator.

According to the incident narrated by Sunita (name changed) on social media, the incident took place when she booked a cab from Kodihalli on HAL Airport Road to Richmond Circle at 10.20pm on Saturday. The cab driver, Sunil Kumar, was allegedly telling his friend on the phone about customers being bad. “He turned to me and told me that as an educated woman I should leave work before 7pm and not go out drinking with colleagues. I told him I didn’t drink and asked him to mind his own business.”

After this, the driver allegedly passed objectionable comments. “At this point, he started slowing down the cab and I got scared. I pressed the ‘safety’ button on Uber. Instead of calling me, they called the cab driver and he started telling the customer care person that I am very drunk. I had no choice but to start screaming asking the customer care to listen to me. The woman on the call told me to get out of the cab and that she will book me another one immediately. Meanwhile, the cab driver started threatening me, saying, ‘I will tear your clothes if you don’t leave the cab now’. After waiting for 15 minutes, I received no support from the cab aggregator and had to call my friends. All Uber did was give me a refund,” Sunita said.

City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao replied to her tweet and said he has instructed his officers to nab the driver. When contacted, DCP (North East) Bheemashankar Guled said that police are trying to trace the driver. 

When contacted, an Uber spokesperson, said, “What’s been described is unacceptable and violates our community guidelines. We have been in touch with the rider, and driver partner’s access to the app has been suspended until further investigation”.