Chennai shocker: Cab driver beats techie to death in fight over OTP

A software developer from Coimbatore, who was in Chennai for a weekend holiday along with his family, was beaten to death by a cab driver following a dispute over delay in entering the one-time password (OTP) and over the number of passengers on the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) in Chennai on Sunday, July 3. The accused driver, identified as Ravi, was arrested on Monday. 

Greater Chennai Police Commissioner, Shankar Jiwal, told IANS that the police have now directed all the cab operators to monitor the antecedents of the drivers they employ for ferrying passengers. Jiwal also called upon the cab operators to submit Aadhaar and other identification records of the drivers with the local police stations for background check.

On Sunday, S Umendhar (34), a software developer, who worked visited a mall to watch a movie along with his wife Bhavya, their two children, Bhavya's sister Divyapriya and her two children. 

Bhavya booked an Ola cab at around 3.30 pm to return to their house in Guduvanchery and on seeing the registration number of the Innova vehicle, all seven hopped into it.

The driver of the vehicle, Ravi (41) from Salem, was furious that the customers entered the vehicle without verifying the OTP and allegedly asked them to get out of the car. He also allegedly told Umendhar that he should have booked a bigger cab as seven people were too many to be accommodated in his vehicle.

According to the police, this led to an altercation between Ravi and Umendhar and in a fit of rage, Ravi showered blows on the software developer. The driver also smashed his mobile phone on Umendhar’s head and beat him up.

Umendhar was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was declared brought dead. The body was later sent to Chromepet Government Hospital for postmortem.

Ravi tried to flee from the scene but was apprehended by the local people and handed over to the police. He has been sent to judicial custody.