Cabby arrested for looting passenger

Police arrested a driver of an app-based cab service along with owner of the particular car from Howrah Maidan. The driver allegedly looted two iPhones, gold chain and cash on Monday night from a person before absconding.

Andrey Michael, who registered a complaint with the Howrah police station, informed the police that he boarded the cab from Kyd Street to reach Ballygunge. Later he realised that he had dropped one of his I phones in the cab.

Michael, a resident of Beniatolla, called up the toll free number of cab service to seek help. They instructed Michel to call up the cabby again in his convenient destination and take his phone from him.

The cabby also assured him of returning the phone at Howrah’s Mallick Phatak. But once Michael reached there, he was attacked by the cabby. The accused cabby snatched his second I phone as well along with a gold chain from his neck and hefty cash from his pocket.

Many complaints were registered against the drivers of the app-based cab service alleging them of looting and molesting woman passengers as well as rash driving. Many drivers were earlier arrested too. The state Transport department instructed the cab service providers to install CCTV cameras and panic button.

Earlier, four men, including a former app cab driver, were arrested for molesting two women passengers in the city. An app-cab driver was arrested by the Bidhannagar police, for allegedly attempting to kidnap a woman passenger after dropping her friend midway.

The accused picked up a 30-year-old woman and her boyfriend from Bidhannagar’s Karunamoyee. The driver requested for help as the car was stopped near Baisakhi Island.

The man got out of the car to help out the driver, but the driver pushed him aside in the footpath and sped off with the car. The woman, later, managed to escape from the car after she raised an alarm.