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Jaipur: Ola cabbie arrested for molesting Finnish woman
Suryaveer Poddar, a 28-year-old resident of Bihar, was heldfor allegedly molesting a 26-year-old Finnish woman in Shastri Nagar area of Jaipur at 1am when the woman was returning to her rented accommodation.
An Ola-cab driver Ola has been arrested by police in the Jaipur for allegedly molesting a 26-year-old Finnish woman, officials said on Friday.
Suryaveer Poddar, a 28-year-old resident of Bihar, was held in connection with the incident that occurred in Shastri Nagar area of Jaipur at 1am when the woman was returning to her rented accommodation.
Station house officer Mahaveer Prasad said the victim complained that the cab driver touched her while she was paying the fare.
Online taxi-hailing app Ola said in a statement it had suspended the driver “within minutes of receiving feedback from the customer this afternoon and have shared this information with her as well”. Ola said it would continue to offer all support and additional information required by the woman and the authorities.
This was the latest in a string of similar incidents involving drivers of app-based taxi services.
In July, a woman alleged the driver of a TaxiForSure cab masturbated while driving her through the streets of Delhi. In June, police arrested a 40-year-old Uber cab driver accused of trying to sexually harass a dancer after driving her from Delhi to Gurgaon. This came six months after a 25-year-old financial analyst was allegedly raped in an Uber cab in Delhi.
In the incident in Jaipur, the Finnish woman hired the cab to return home after dinner at a hotel. She has been in the city for a month in for a three-month internship at a private firm, said Prasad.
The woman and her colleagues approached police at 1pm on Friday and filed a complaint. Police then lodged an FIR under section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (assault or use of criminal force against a woman to outrage her modesty) and arrested the driver.
The cab was seized and police official were to produce the driver in court on Saturday after interrogation.
In February, police in Jaipur had arrested two men for allegedly making sexually advances to a foreign woman, including a driver of an Ola cab. The 22-year-old foreigner, who was pursuing a hotel management course, filed a police complaint after she received telephone calls from an unknown number.
