Noida: Cab driver threatens women riders; arrested

Suspect Kumar’s elder brother, Satish Kumar, told HT, “My brother was called to visit Sector 39 police station. There, he was arrested.After some paperwork, he was sent to jail”

Noida: A cab driver linked to a private aggregator was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly misbehaving with his women passengers and threatening to assault them after a dispute over taking a particular route to the destination.

One of the purported video clips of the incident on social media, shows the cab driver aggressively pulling out a plastic pipe from the boot space of his Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and the women passengers to pay money (Video Grab/HT Photos)

Police identified the suspect as Brajesh Kumar in his late 30s, originally from Merapur in Farrukhabad, living in Haibatpur in Phase 3, Noida.

According to Noida police, the incident took place on Tuesday morning near Golf Course Metro Station after a group of women booked a cab from Botanical Garden Metro Station to Sector 128.

“After travelling a short distance, the women asked the driver to take an offline route, but he said he would go only via the route shown on Google Maps. This led to an argument,” said an official statement. “The driver, during the investigation said they (women) pulled his hair and misbehaved with him before video recording the incident,” said an officer part of the investigation urging anonymity.

One of the video clips of the incident on social media, shows the cab driver aggressively pulling out a plastic pipe from the boot space of his Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and the women passengers to pay money. HT, however, could not verify any video clip’s authenticity.

On social media account, one of the women who booked the cab, said: “We were five girls. I was on the front seat and asked the driver to take the underpass instead of U-turn due to heavy traffic. We requested him multiple times not to take the U-turn, but he still took that route.”

She said when they protested, the driver got angry and started speaking rudely, and got aggressive. She said as they refused to continue the ride and alighted, he pulled out a plastic pipe to attack. “When we started filming him, he kept abusing us. We tried calling police and women’s helpline, but there was no response.”

HT tried contacting the victim, but she didn’t not respond.

Suspect Kumar’s elder brother, Satish Kumar, told HT, “My brother was called to visit Sector 39 police station. There, he was arrested.After some paperwork, he was sent to jail.”

“Taking cognizance over the video, the driver was arrested and a case under different BNSS Sections was registered against him for misbehaving with women passengers,” said SHO (Sector 39) Jitendra Kumar.  The aggregator’s comment remained awaited.