For the second time in less than 6 months, another Uber driver has now been accused for sexual assault by a woman commuter from Gurgaon, in India’s increasingly unsafe National Capital Region. Unfortunately for Uber, this news comes less than 24 hours after it appointed Amit Jain as its Indian operations’ President to re-assure authorities of its concern for passenger safety with a dedicated India staff.
The incident came to light when victim’s brother lambasted upon Uber for sexual assault by its driver on his sister. Thrashing Uber via a Facebook post, the victim’s brother said,
My sister availed your cab service, last night for Gurgaon & your driver Vinod tried to kiss her forcibly & even after registering complaint with you morons there has been no action, no update form your end
Uber, in a statement sent to us, says,
Our team immediately reached out to the rider via phone within a few minutes of receiving the feedback. Multiple members of the Uber team have spoken with the driver. Uber has a zero-tolerance policy towards inappropriate behaviour and immediate action has already been taken with the driver partner being deactivated while the matter is being thoroughly investigated.
However, Uber says that since the driver had valid commercial license issued by Delhi Transport regulator along with supporting Police verification documents, the cab-hailing company will be dealing with the matter directly. Uber says,
In order to protect the privacy of parties involved, we will continue to handle this matter directly with the concerned parties. As discussed with the rider on the phone and email, our team is ready to assist further in any way we can to share information with authorities. We can also confirm that the driver partner does have a valid PSV badge and commercial license issued by the Delhi authorities.
While this is the second time an Uber driver has been accused of such sexual assaults in India, this has happened across other cities as well. An Uber driver was accused of a similar assault in its home market U.S., where a female passenger filed a police complaint against an Uber driver for alleged rape.
What’s however even more disappointing, is the fact that such an incident has happened despite Uber adding a slew of safety measures in its app, which also includes a direct passengers tracking SOS feature, which it upgraded a few days back.
