Ola Driver Molests & Asks Passenger To Strip, Police Says Security Lapses From The Company

[Update: The article was updated at 8 PM after we again got a call from Ola saying that Police verification certificate has been furnished to the police. We spoke to the police on the veracity of the certificate, they said the investigation is still going on]

An Ola driver was arrested in Bengaluru for allegedly molesting a 26-year-old when she took a cab from her residence to Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru. During the police investigation, it came to the light that OLA did not do the police verification of the driver.

What happened?

A Bengaluru resident, Anitha (name changed), had to go through a horrifying experience when she was forced to strip by an Ola driver on June 1. Anitha booked a cab at around 2 am to go to the airport. On the way, she enquired why the driver was taking the wrong route, and he replied saying that it is a short route and free of tolls.

Soon the driver stopped the car in a secluded area and molested her. When she tried to fight back, the driver threatened that he will call a group of men and rape her. In a statement to the JP Nagar police, the driver said “I was tempted after seeing her. She was wearing a provoking dress and hence I asked her to strip.”

The Karnataka police have arrested the accused on June 5th from his residence. Soon after the incident, Ola officially responded saying “We regret the unfortunate experience the customer had during the ride.”

We regret the unfortunate experience the customer had. We've zero tolerance for such incidents&driver's been blacklisted. Safety of customers our top priority. We're extending full support to police in probe: Ola spox on Ola driver arrested for molesting woman passenger in K'taka pic.twitter.com/dm5XxXyYpI

— ANI (@ANI) June 5, 2018

However, the police investigation revealed that there had been a major lapse on the part of Ola. They found out that the Ola completely missed the first step and the crucial step of the police verification of the driver. The Bengaluru police have also issued a notice to Ola.

When The Logical Indian team spoke to Ola, they claimed that there was some misunderstanding between Bengaluru police about Ola missing the police verification of the driver.

After the OLA claims, The logical Indian again spoke to the Bengaluru police who said “very recently the Ola gave the police verification certificate of the driver, which may or may not be right. The notice has been issued to the Ola on the basis of the security lapses done by the company. The further investigation is going on in the matter.”

A case has been registered against the Ola cab driver and a notice has been sent to the Ola as well.

The Logical Indian take

This is not the first time a cab driver has been accused of molesting passengers. An Incident like this raises a lot of concern about the safety issue of the passenger, especially for the women commuters. Everyday a lot of women passenger take these commercial cabs to there respective destinations hoping they will reach home safely and it becomes the company’s duty to ensure that.