The woman, who was sharing a ride on Ola, wanted the driver to drop her at her office when incident happened
An Ola Share ride yesterday caused a Matunga woman Monday morning blues of a ghastly kind. Rutuja Rokade, 29, was confined in the cab and abused and hit for nearly 10 minutes by the driver as well as her male co-passenger, after she requested the former to drop her till the office instead of the complex gate, as she had knee pain. Rokade, who works in an MNC in Goregaon's Nirlon Knowledge Park, lodged a police complaint after which the driver was arrested.
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Rutuja Rokade
Rokade decided to take a cab to work as her company's pick-up facility wasn't available yesterday for some reason. "No micro or mini cabs were available in the morning; so, I decided to take a share ride," she said. "I got into the cab (MH-02-EH-3572) in Matunga East around 6.20 am. After a while, another passenger got on at Matunga Road. Everything was fine till we reached Nirlon Knowledge Park."
10 minutes of torture
When the driver stopped the car at the complex gate, Rokade requested him to drop her near her office building, saying she had knee pain. Even as the driver refused to, her co-passenger intervened. "I asked him to keep quiet as it wasn't his business, but he started abusing me. I offered the driver extra money to take the cab inside, but he again refused, saying he would have to take U-turn," she said.
Rokade added that the co-passenger kept butting into the conversation and said to her 'Tumhe kuch kaam dhandaa nahi hai kya? Mujhe Malad jaanaa hai, late ho raha hai'. "When I asked him not to interfere, it enraged him and he told the driver to start for Malad to 'teach a lesson to this arrogant woman'. I then tried to open to door, but the driver locked it centrally. And the co-passenger hit my hand every time I tried to open it."
The argument, abuse and assault went on for nearly 10 minutes, when finally, Rokade pleaded with the driver to let her out. He unlocked the door and Rokade stumbled out and went to the security guard at the gate for help. While she was walking, the driver got out of the cab, shouted abuses at her and took off. By the time the guards came out, the cab had gone.
Action status
When Rokade went to Vanrai police station to lodge a complaint, duty officers advised her to file a non-cognisable offence. But she insisted on lodging an FIR and had to wait for three hours before the police registered a case against the driver and co-passenger under IPC sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 506 (criminal intimidation), 509 (word or gesture intended to outrage the modesty of a woman) and 34 (common intention).
An officer said, "We arrested the driver, Rafiq Shaikh, today; he has secured bail. We are in talks with the cab company to get the co-passenger's details." "We regret the unfortunate experience the customer had during this ride. We have zero tolerance for such incidents, and the driver has been offloaded from the platform with immediate effect. Safety of our customers is our priority, and we will continue to extend our full support to the authorities investigating the case," said a spokesperson from Ola.
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Hours she had to wait before the cops filed an FIR
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