Sharukh Engineer had refused to ply a friend of the accused when she changed her destination from Kalina to Do... Read More

MUMBAI: A 46-year-old Uber driver was grievously injured after a cafe owner assaulted him on the head with a rod at Sion-Koliwada recently. Sharukh Engineer had refused to ply a female friend of the accused when she changed her trip destination from Kalina to Dombivli after boarding his cab. Rakesh Thalakkat was arrested and is in judicial custody.

Engineer had completed his last trip and decided to head to his Andheri residence around 11pm on Monday, so he entered ‘home’ into the Uber app. In such cases, Uber routes a request to the driver only if the passenger’s destination falls on his route. At Pratiksha Nagar, a woman boarded Engineer’s vehicle. She had marked her destination as Kalina but after talking to her friend, Thalakkat, waiting outside the vehicle, she changed it to Dombivli.

“I explained that she would need to book another cab. I could not ply to Dombivli as I had already entered into the app that I was headed home. The woman got off and complained about me to Thalakkat. He suddenly started to hurl abuses and pull my shirt,” said Engineer. As his shirt tore, Engineer pushed Thalakkat away. “He then went to his SUV, pulled out a rod and hit it on my head. I was in tremendous pain as blood started oozing out,” said Engineer.

Engineer tried to note down Thalakkat’s vehicle registration number. A passerby intervened and slapped Engineer. “I got into my vehicle and started driving home. I tried to stem the blood flow by holding my palm against my head,” said Engineer. His family rushed him to Kokilaben Ambani Hospital, where he received 15 stitches. “We did not want to delay filing an FIR and went to Antop Hill police station at night. But we were very disappointed as Uber did nothing to support us,” said Viraf, Engineer’s brother.

Uber sources said Thalakkat, in whose name the trip was booked, was not reachable, so he was blacklisted. “We have insurance for driver partners and Engineer can avail of it,” said an official. A company statement said, “The rider no longer has access to the app. We are in touch with the driver partner to support him in anyway possible and stand ready to assist law enforcement in their investigation.”

Repeated attempts were made to contact Thalakkat's associates for his side of the story on Thursday. There was no response. On Saturday, Thalakkat reached out to TOI. He said, "I regret assaulting the driver but would also like to say that it was due to provocation from him. I was only looking out for my friend so she could reach her destination safely and never intended to hurt anybody. I have suffered injuries to my stomach and chest in the incident.

