Case filed against the driver who is on the run; victim was to take taxi to airport

An Uber taxi driver allegedly beat up a 23-year-old software engineer after the two had an argument over the fare to Kempegowda International Airport. The incident took place at Hoodi on Wednesday evening, but the police are yet to arrest the driver as he is on the run.

The victim, Aneek Roy, who works in an IT firm at Whitefield, told the police that he had booked Uber’s Airport Pool from his apartment at Hoodi as he was going to Kolkata to be with his family for Dasara. “In his statement, he said when he started loading his luggage in the taxi, the driver, identified as Harish K.S., demanded that he pay the Uber Go fare in advance,” said a senior police officer.

Roy objected to this, pointing out that he had specifically booked a share ride. Harish allegedly refused to drop him and began insisting that he cancel the ride. Roy refused to cancel the ride, pointing out that he would be made to pay a cancellation fee. He threatened to raise a complaint against the driver on the app.

Enraged, Harish began to fling Roy’s bags from the car. Roy tried to explain that the bags contained breakable items — gifts he had bought for his family. “In a fit of rage, Harish punched Roy’s nose so hard that he started bleeding profusely,” said the police officer.

According to the victim, onlookers had gathered at the spot but no one tried to help him. Harish allegedly started kicking and punching Roy and abusing him. Finally, a shopkeeper intervened and convinced Harish to leave. He offered the injured software engineer some water.

‘Not allowed to fly’

As Roy was running late, he booked another taxi for the airport, but he was not allowed to fly as his nose was bleeding. He was taken to Manipal hospital, where he was diagnosed with nasal bone dislocation. After the procedure, Roy filed a complaint with the police before taking a flight to Kolkata on Thursday.

The Mahadevapura police have booked Harish under Section 341 (wrongful restraint), Section 323 (assault), and Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace). Efforts are on to track down Harish.

This is the second such incident in the last few days. The police recently arrested an Ola driver who had abandoned a female passenger on an isolated stretch of Begur Road after she insisted that he take the toll road on her way back from the airport.

Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao has warned taxi aggregators about ensuring that the drivers on their platform follow the rules and not misbehave with passengers.

When contacted, a spokesperson for Uber said the driver had been removed from the app. “We do not condone violence of any kind and our community guidelines clearly reject this kind of behaviour. The safety of our riders is paramount and upon learning of this incident, we removed the driver-partner’s access to the app.”