NEW DELHI: Asad Ashraf was left stranded at a secluded place after Ola Cabs driver denied a ride to him to Delhi’s Jamia Nagar because of it being a ‘Muslim colony’.
Ashraf, a journalist booked an Ola cab from B.K Dutt Colony in Delhi to get to Jamia Nagar but was dropped off midway by the cab driver. When Ashraf protested, the cab driver allegedly threatened and harassed saying that Jamia “was not a place to go.”
@Olacabs your driver would have killed me for being a Muslim today. Where are your ethics ? @DelhiPolice . Screenshot of my complaint is here. pic.twitter.com/tXSGFvHcZA
— Asad Ashraf (@Asad_Ashraf88) June 17, 2018
Ashraf wasted no time and report the issue with OLA but got no response. However, when posted screenshot of his complaint on Twitter, he got a response from OLA Cabs who stated to have sacked the driver.
Specific to the shocking Incident that happened last night, we have off-roaded the driver. Ola, like India, believes in secularity & will never allow any sort of discrimination amongst its customers & driver partners. We stand by our customer & deeply apologise for the incident.
— Ola (@Olacabs) June 18, 2018
He had posted his woes on Facebook. His Facebook post narrating his nightmarish experience had stated, “This time it was OLA’s bigotry, I reported the incident to OLA. Made a police complaint. I picked an OLA from BK Dutt colony, as soon as I gave him the OTP and he figured out that my destination is Jamia Nagar, he started driving and took me to a deserted location and asked me to get out of the car. On asking the reason, the reply was, ‘ we dont go to Jamia Nagar’ and subsequently asked me to get out the car or I will face consequences. When I refused, he started calling up his friends.
“He threatened me by saying, ‘main dekhta hoon’ (Now, I will see) and then dialled his people. I was really scared as it was a completely deserted place,” he said.
“I raised an emergency alarm on the app after which an executive from OLA got back to me and ensured immidiate action. But an hour since then neither has OLA responded to my calls or got back to me. The police also took this very casually and went away after taking the written complaint saying that they have other calls to attend. I am attaching screenshots, have all the call records as well. PS : They had also temporarily blocked my app and was not able to operate it until I rated them.”
This isn’t the first time. Earlier in April, a VHP worker followed by PM Modi’s cabinet colleagues had claimed to had cancelled his Ola ride because the driver was Muslim.
The taxi-hailing service’s terse response had earn the taxi-hiring company plenty of plaudits. It had said, ” “Ola, like our country, is a secular platform, and we don’t discriminate our driver partners or customers basis their caste, religion, gender or creed. We urge all our customers and driver partners to treat each other with respect at all times.”