KOLKATA: An app cab driver was arrested for allegedly misbehaving with two young women passengers on Southern Avenue and snatching their handbags.
Cops have slapped the driver Swapan Biswas (40), a resident of Tollygunge Road, with the charges of molestation and theft.
The incident that happened around 8.30pm on Tuesday was reported around 48 hours after another app cab driver of the same aggregator was arrested on charges of misbehaving with and pushing a 35-year-old woman.
The complainant (19), a model and a resident of Haridevpur, said she was returning home from a photo shoot with her friend (25), a resident of Tollygunge from Monoharpukur Road.
The complainant asked the driver to drop her friend at Tollygunge, but he allegedly refused her, saying that the point, where she had asked for the drop, was not anywhere near the route on his GPS device. This resulted in an argument between the woman and the driver, who allegedly foul-mouthed and stopped the vehicle at the Southern Avenue-Jatin Bagchi Road Crossing.
The woman alleged that the driver had alighted from the cab and asked them to get off. When she asked him to mind his behaviour, he allegedly picked up a disinfectant and sprayed it on the faces of the two women and snatched their handbags. Though the women chased the driver down the road, he fled the spot with the cab.
“We got the details about the accused driver from the cab aggregator and nabbed him in the wee hours of Wednesday from the Kabardanga area under Haridevpur police station. We seized the vehicle and the handbags from Choto Rajbari Math in Tollygunge,” said an officer of Rabindra Sarobar police station.
However, the accused driver denied the allegations. “During interrogation, the driver claimed that the women had left behind the bags in the vehicle and that he was not aware of this and did not bring the bags with him to Haridevpur,” said a police source. Cops have started a probe into the incident and are checking CCTV footage to ascertain the exact chain of events.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
Cops have slapped the driver Swapan Biswas (40), a resident of Tollygunge Road, with the charges of molestation and theft.
The incident that happened around 8.30pm on Tuesday was reported around 48 hours after another app cab driver of the same aggregator was arrested on charges of misbehaving with and pushing a 35-year-old woman.
The complainant (19), a model and a resident of Haridevpur, said she was returning home from a photo shoot with her friend (25), a resident of Tollygunge from Monoharpukur Road.
The complainant asked the driver to drop her friend at Tollygunge, but he allegedly refused her, saying that the point, where she had asked for the drop, was not anywhere near the route on his GPS device. This resulted in an argument between the woman and the driver, who allegedly foul-mouthed and stopped the vehicle at the Southern Avenue-Jatin Bagchi Road Crossing.
The woman alleged that the driver had alighted from the cab and asked them to get off. When she asked him to mind his behaviour, he allegedly picked up a disinfectant and sprayed it on the faces of the two women and snatched their handbags. Though the women chased the driver down the road, he fled the spot with the cab.
“We got the details about the accused driver from the cab aggregator and nabbed him in the wee hours of Wednesday from the Kabardanga area under Haridevpur police station. We seized the vehicle and the handbags from Choto Rajbari Math in Tollygunge,” said an officer of Rabindra Sarobar police station.
However, the accused driver denied the allegations. “During interrogation, the driver claimed that the women had left behind the bags in the vehicle and that he was not aware of this and did not bring the bags with him to Haridevpur,” said a police source. Cops have started a probe into the incident and are checking CCTV footage to ascertain the exact chain of events.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
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