Ola driver, who masturbated in front of passenger, arrested in Mumbai’s Borivli

Police said the driver, the cab driver Sandeep Bhuvneshwar Varnval, who is in his late twenties, was loitering in Borivli (East) when a team of officers laid a trap and arrested him.

A taxi driver, who was sacked by app-based aggregator Ola on Tuesday for allegedly masturbating in the presence of a 36-year-old woman passenger last week, was arrested on Wednesday by the Thane police.

The app-based aggregator sacked the driver after the woman called its helpline and complained. (File Photo used for representative purpose only)

Police said the driver, Sandeep Bhuvneshwar Varnval, who is in his late twenties, was loitering in Borivli (East) when a team of officers laid a trap and arrested him.

The complainant was earlier asked to approach the Shil-Daighar police in Thane to lodge a complaint.

“After her complaint, we immediately started tracing him and within a few hours, managed to get his exact location,” said RD Malekar, a senior inspector.

Based on the description given by the woman, the team of police officers posed as anonymous callers and dialled Varnval’s number until one of them spotted him answering the calls.

Police said it took one-and-a-half hours before he was caught.

After Varnval was taken to the police station, he initially refuted the allegations against him but after sustained interrogation, he confessed to having masturbated in front of the complainant, said police. He was booked under section 509 (word, act or gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman).

On June 22, Varnval had allegedly masturbated in the presence of the complainant when they were stuck in traffic in Mumbra.

After she called the cab aggregator’s helpline, another cab was arranged for her and later, the firm had sacked Varnval.