Remember the video of an Uber driver who was assaulted by three women and disrobed by them? The Kerala High Court has now come to his rescue, and slammed the state police for charging the driver under a non-bailable offence. The police had booked the driver for allegedly ‘outraging the modesty’ of the women passengers.
The court clamped down on Maradu sub inspector for slapping the driver with non-bailable charges without convincing evidence.
The Uber driver Shafeeq was assaulted by three women passengers over seat sharing, on September 20. The women were reportedly uncomfortable with the presence of another passenger. It is also to be noted that the women had opted for Uber pool while booking the cab. The scuffle started as a mere argument but reportedly escalated to physical attack, later on.
Following the incident, a video of the assault went viral on social media, and the women were booked by the police. But later, they also booked the taxi driver for allegedly outraging the modesty of the three women, despite the video footage that clearly shows the women resorting to violence.
An eyewitness, Shinoj PA, had also come out, three days after the incident, criticising Kerala police for charging cases against the Uber driver and not the women.
Online taxi drivers in Kochi had also gone on a strike last month to protest against the reported inaction from the Kerala police. The police had arrested the women initially only to release them on bail after a short while.