HYDERABAD: Uber has done it again. A female passenger accused the Uber taxi driver of masturbating while in the car.
The incident happened on Thursday when the woman identified as Uma Sharma took an Uber cab to go to the Hyderabad airport.
Sharma, a resident of Hyderabad, in a post on Facebook described a disgusting and shameful incident that left her disturbed.
Today my #Uber driver thought it perfectly normal to masturbate while dropping me to the airport,” she wrote.
“Today my #Uber driver thought it perfectly normal to masturbate while dropping me to the airport. As soon as we were on the relatively empty ORR in #Hyderabad, he slowed the car to about a 50 kmph and kept glancing back in the rearview mirror. After about 5mins when I realized what he was doing, I shouted and asked him to stop the car – unfazed, and continuing his act, he very nonchalantly asked me what was wrong. After much screaming, he reluctantly stopped the car, and continued standing on the road until I took a picture of him and threatened to go to the cops.
I was scared- as an alone woman in a still-unfamiliar city. Scared of what else he may do since I’d threatened him. Scared that he may return while I waited on the road for another cab. Scared at how utterly powerless I felt when he blankly he looked at me, without an ounce of guilt on his face. And most of all, scared that this was probably not the first time he’d done this- yet he was still out there, just a matter of time until he did the same, or God forbid, did worse with some other woman.
Two days back I was hopeful as I, along with hundreds of other women I know, chose to speak about the sexual harassment we’ve faced. Anger aside, there was also an odd sense of unity in watching so many women #stopthesilence after years and courageously come forward with their stories. Today, I shudder to think how many of these #metoo statuses were because of the same vile men who repeated their actions – only because we were too scared to speak up.
So today, I choose to speak up and I won’t stop until #UberIndia takes responsibility for their non-existent driver verification and complete disregard for their passengers safety. I’m also taking this up with the cops to initiate action against this worthless excuse of a man.
#Reshare if you’ve ever been in the same situation, known anyone who’s faced the same; If you’re as sick as I am of the supposed normalcy of these things. Re-share so that more women read this and maybe find the courage to speak up the next time they’re such a situation too. #nomore #yesallwomen”
The 25-year-old said that she will be in the process of registering an official police complaint.
“So today, I choose to speak up and I won’t stop until #UberIndia takes responsibility for their non-existent driver verification and complete disregard for their passengers safety. I’m also taking this up with the cops to initiate action against this worthless excuse of a man,” she wrote.
In a statement to indianexpress.com, an Uber spokesperson said: “What’s been described has no place on our app. Our community guidelines clearly reject such inappropriate behaviour. The driver partner’s access to the Uber app has been barred.”
The latest incident comes when powerful hashtag movement #MeToo protesting against sexual harassment took the Internet by storm.