Four passengers robbed and thrashed an Ola cab driver at a secluded place in Bengaluru, and asked his wife to strip for them on a video call.
According to media reports, the victim Somashekhar received a booking from Bengaluru's Adugodi to Dommasandra on Friday night. When he arrived at the pickup point, the four passengers allegedly asked him to drop them to another destination. When the cab reached an isolated place, the four started assaulting the driver and demanded money.
"They drove for around 100km. They asked for all my money. I had Rs 9,000 in my bank account. They wanted more and asked me to ask friends to send more. I had Rs20,000 in my Paytm account. I called a relative, sent the money to him via Paytm and asked him to transfer the money to me in my bank account, which these men withdrew," Somashekhar told News 18.
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The driver further added that the miscreants' video called his wife and forced her to strip.
"Midway, they had halted for about 30 minutes and video called my wife. They asked her to strip and took screenshots of it. They snatched away my phone too," he added.
In an official statement by Ola, the spokesperson told News18, "This is an extremely unfortunate incident and we deeply regret the harrowing experience the driver-partner and his family have allegedly been put through. We strongly condemn such acts of assault and have blacklisted the customer’s Ola account immediately on the complaint being registered with us. We are in touch with the driver-partner to extend support to him, and have been assisting the investigating authorities with all necessary information. We hold our driver-partners in high regard for the work they do as entrepreneurs and stand by them against humiliation or intimidation of any kind.”
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A case has been registered for alleged blackmail, assault and also for outraging the modesty of a woman.
On June 06, 2018, a woman was allegedly assaulted and forced strip by the Ola driver. The woman told the police that the driver took pictures on mobile and even threatened to call his friends and get her gang-raped.
