New Delhi: Renowned cab services provider in India, Ola service has fired and blacklisted a driver after a passenger claimed harassment by the cabbie during a ride from Bangalore airport on December 10.
Passenger Akanksha Hazari took to social media to share her experience with where she claimed the driver took a route different from the one directed by the app and asked her to get off when she told him to follow the designated path.
Responding to her harassment claim, Ola services responded by saying: “We deeply regret the experience that the customer had to go through. The driver in question had been off-roaded immediately and has been blacklisted from the Ola platform. Safety of customers is our top priority and we are committed to ensuring that initiatives like the in-app Emergency button, a 24×7 Safety Response Team, and Ola Guardian amongst others, help our customers feel safe when they use the Ola platform. We have extended support to the police in sharing all the information to help them with the investigation.”
As soon as her post went viral, she was contacted by the Bangalore Police who asked her to fetch details of driver and the vehicle number too.
They later tweeted that her complaint had been forwarded to the Bengaluru International Airport Police Station.
Sharing her nightmare, Hazari tweeted that she boarded the cab at 11.31 pm from the Bangalore airport and soon after that the driver took a separate route than the one suggested by the app to avoid the toll road. She described the road as “narrow, long and unlit”.
When she asked the driver to turn around, he claimed to have no cash to pay the toll.
2nights ago, Dec 10 night, bet 11-2am I was harassed & nearly assaulted on an @Olacabs ride from Bangalore Airport>City. I am sharing my story because after 3days of followup, I have received no update & in fact been charged for the scariest ride of my life.This is what happened
— Akanksha Hazari (@AkankshaHazari) December 11, 2018
“I was alone in the car and at this point past midnight felt uneasy about this route. I asked the driver to please turn around and go back to the toll road and follow the route directed by the app,” she tweeted.
“The driver became aggressive and told me to get out of the car. I protested. How can he leave me on the side of a dark back road, in the middle of the night? All I saw was darkness and a few men loitering,” she said.
She further added that she also pressed the Ola emergency button following which she received a call from an Ola safety executive, who assured her that the ride was being tracked, Indian express rpeorts.
“He promised if there was any deviation from my route he would contact me immediately. I believed him and continued on the trip.”
And only a few moments later, the driver started making calls while driving and stopped at once at an isolated place when she retorted.
“I politely asked him if he could not make calls while driving. Like every woman, I was wary of who he could call at this time of night. He spoke in Kannada so I couldn’t understand the conversations,” she tweeted.
She recalls pressing the emergency button 10 times in panic but received no response.
“I am also wondering where the Ola Safety Exec who promised to be tracking my ride is. The car has been stopped for a few minutes now. He would see
that if he was tracking the ride. But no call,” Hazari narrated.
Responding to her, ola spokesperson said: “The Ola team was tracking the cab. After the cab had stopped, Ola tried calling but at the same time, she was also dialing the executive. So both of them were calling each other at the same time and the call was not connecting.”
She then soon dialed 100 and gave the details of her car but was unable to spot the exact location to the police.
After hours of anticipation, when she could finally manage to contact the executive, he spoke to the driver and continued to stay online via the speaker until she was dropped at her location.