KOLKATA: An app cab driver was arrested from Kolkata airport on Friday for allegedly harassing and mistreating a lady passenger while denying her to take her to the destination even after accepting the ride.
The driver, Chandan Kumar Yadav was booked under IPC section 354 (molestation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to outrage the modesty of a woman).
TOI has written on multiple occasions about the rise in instances of app cab drivers cancelling rides or misbehaving with passengers at the Kolkata airport. However, apart from a few days of suspension by the app cab operator, seldom any other action is taken against the rogue drivers in absence of a formal police complaint.
In this case, the passenger had got down at Kolkata airport from Delhi on April 30 and had booked an app cab to reach her home around 17 kms away in north 24 parganas. The passenger had come out of the airport and was standing at the designated pick up point when she received a call from the driver with usual queries of the amount shown in the app and mode of payment.
“The driver demanded the payment be made in cash while the woman said she had already opted for digital payment and would stick to the same. There was a tiff between the two over phone when the driver had allegedly abused and misbehaved with the lady passenger before cancelling the trip,” said an officer of Bidhannagar Commissionerate.
The woman felt insulted and, unlike letting the matter pass away as the majority of passengers do, she went to the NSCBI airport police station and lodged an official complaint against the driver with the details available on the app.
Cops began a probe into the case and were tracking the vehicle. On Friday, the man drove into the Kolkata airport and was immediately arrested by cops who were on the prowl.
