A 22-year-old woman from Bengaluru accused her cab driver of sexually harassing her on August 23. In her complaint, the woman said her driver, identified as Devasomalia was masturbating while watching porn during her journey from Yelahanka to JP Nagar. The police confirmed to TNM that the accused is on the run and has not yet been apprehended.
The complainant said she noticed what the cab driver was doing near Queen’s Circle, in Central Business District. When she protested and asked him to stop, the complaint says that he insisted on dropping her only at her destination in JP Nagar.
Reacting to this, an Ola statement said, "We are shocked and deeply disturbed by this incident, and have immediately removed the driver's access to the platform. We are standing by our customer and have extended full assistance to the police in their ongoing investigation."
An FIR has been registered by Cubbon Park Police Station under 354A (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code. The car (KA53 C9192) has been confisticated while Devasomalia is yet to be arrested.
Cubbon Park Police Station Inspector B Reddy told TNM, “We have not been able to arrest the accused yet. Once we arrest the accused, we will establish who is the guilty party. We will add the owner or Ola company in the FIR after finishing the investigation.”
Initial reports claimed that the person driving the car was not the Ola-designated driver-partner.
However, an Ola spokesperson claimed that there was an initial delay in sharing of information due to a technical glitch which led to the miscommunication.
“It is not true that the driver was somebody else. He was registered as a driver in the platform but was not the owner of the vehicle. We have submitted details about him to the police and will continue to cooperate,” he added.
He claimed that it was the responsibility of the owner of the vehicle for hiring the person and not Ola for the incident.
“It is not we are not doing anything from our side in the light of these incidents. We are trying to improve things on our backend and app support system to improve things further,” he claimed.