Uber re-run, 21-yr-old molested in Gurgaon

The woman, who is a trained dancer and works as a performance <g data-gr-id="48">artiste</g> at a live entertainment and theatre unit in Gurgaon, alleged that the Uber cabbie molested her inside the vehicle when she reached her destination in Gurgaon. The woman is a resident of Sector 9 in outer Delhi’s Rohini sub-city.

The incident came to light on Monday when the woman’s brother posted an open letter on the company’s official Facebook page, claiming that Uber did not take an action against the accused driver, identified as Vinod, despite having received a complaint from the victim on May 31 (Sunday) morning. Within hours, the post went viral, compelling the company to suspend the accused driver.

On Monday evening, a senior police official reportedly communicated with the woman’s brother and asked him to register a complaint through an e-mail. 

The complainant added that they could not register the complaint till Monday because of some confusion and that his sister was too traumatised to be questioned.

On Saturday, the woman had boarded the cab around 8.30pm. After reaching Gurgaon, the driver allegedly claimed to have lost his way and also failed to use the navigation facility on the <g data-gr-id="38">smart phone</g> that the company had provided him. 

 This compelled the woman to open the GPS facility on her phone and navigate the driver. Later, the 

<g data-gr-id="66">driver</g> allegedly asked the woman to send the GPS details to his phone.

The accused was suspected to be trying to buy time to carry out his intentions. The incident could have been avoided had there been a standalone GPS fitted in the car, accessible by both the passenger and the driver. This issue was later incorporated in an e-mail sent to the police by the woman’s brother.

According to the 21-year-old woman, the journey – which should have taken anything between one  hour and 1.5 hours – took almost two-and-a-half hours, during which the driver allegedly kept telling the woman about his wife and daughters, occasionally complimenting her about her looks, which made her feel uncomfortable.

After <g data-gr-id="53">sometime</g>, the driver allegedly started narrating the December 5 Uber rape incident and kept insisting that the survivor was drunk and she too deserved to be blamed. He also allegedly claimed to have known the accused, Shiv Kumar Yadav, and to have suggested him to leave Delhi immediately after the incident.