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The Bommanahalli police in Bengaluru on Tuesday arrested Ola driver Ravikumar for allegedly molesting a woman passenger who took the cab service last week. Police officials have maintained that a “clear picture will emerge” only after interrogation of the accused.
Aarti*, a singer by profession, was out for a karaoke night, after which she boarded the taxi aggregator to commute from the event in Koramangala to her place in Begur. Aarti boarded the silver coloured Tata Indica at 2:15 am in the morning, to travel a distance of approximately 7 km.
However, about 5 km away form her house, Ravikumar took a detour, following which Aarti told him to follow the location entered in the map.
Aarti took shelter at a small clinic, while she waited for her friend to come get her. While filing a complaint against Ravikumar at the Bommanahalli station, Aarti alleges that the police wanted to know if she was "trying to get attention."
Ola responded to the case with this statement:
However, this is not the only molestation case Ola has been embroiled in this month.
Shadabh Mohommad Ibrahim Shaikh (32) was arrested on Thursday night for molesting a 32-year-old woman. According to Hindustan Times, the arrest was made by the police from Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg Police. The incident occurred on 10 April when the woman was going to pick her son from his school and was forced by the cab driver to sit in the cab.
The driver reportedly stopped the vehicle after he got scared that the woman might jump out of the moving car. Seizing the opportunity, the woman jumped out and asked him to return her phone. But the driver fled the spot in his car. The police were later able to trace him with the woman’s mobile phone.
This is not the first of such incidents for the home-grown taxi aggregator. Last year, two Ola drivers were arrested within two weeks of each other on charges of molesting women passengers.
Ola has not responded to the arrest of the driver in Mumbai.
(*Names have been changed to protect the woman’s identity.)
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