Rapido auto driver sexually assaults B’luru woman, throws her out of vehicle

New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) A Bengaluru woman was sexually assaulted by a Rapido auto driver on Wednesday and was thrown out of the moving vehicle when she defended herself.

One of the woman’s friends, Ankur Bagchi, described the incident on X, encouraging others not to use the ride-hailing platform.

“Rapido enables sexual predators. Do not use Rapido. One of my friends got sexually assaulted last night by a @rapidobikeapp auto driver. She was touched inappropriately and when she pushed back, she was thrown out of a moving auto,” Bagchi wrote on Thursday.

He went on to say that when the woman called Rapido for assistance, they stated that they did not keep records of auto drivers who worked for them and that it was not their problem.

The user then sought assistance from others in locating the driver. “She reached out to Rapido to resolve this and they said sorry, we don’t store auto driver details, not our problem. We’re working on sorting this out, but in the meantime she needs medical care. If you have any leads on how we can find this guy, ping me,” he wrote.

Bagchi’s post received numerous retweets and comments, but most importantly, a response from the city police, who asked for more information.

In July, police arrested a Rapido driver, who misbehaved with a woman passenger during the ride and even afterwards harassed her over the phone.

The woman, Athira Purushothaman had taken to X (then Twitter) on July 21 stating that she had gone for the Manipur violence protest at Town Hall and booked a Rapido auto to go home from the venue. However, after several cancellations, she decided to take a Rapido bike back home. She said that as they reached an isolated area — with no other vehicles around, the driver began masturbating.

–IANS

shs/rad