A Chennai Ola cab driver and his friends tried to molest a 26-year-old woman passenger on Sunday night Sep 25.
The victim who works in the Emergency Response wing of a private hospital in Anna Nagar had visited her friend in Injambakkam. She took her friend’s help to book a cab to go to work.
She boarded a cab driven by Venkatesan thus began her nightmarish ride. The cab driver halted the car once it reached VGP Peace Temple street on East Coast Road and two men identified as Muthupandi and Sakthi jumped into the cab.
Venkatesan said that they were his friends and would get off on the way to Anna Nagar. The women felt uncomfortable and alerted her friend about what was going on.
The two men started making advances at her and she began screaming for help. A motorist who heard her screams intercepted the cab, bringing it to a halt. Immediately, the two men sitting in the back made a run for it. Meanwhile, the woman’s friend had alerted the police and a patrol vehicle was dispatched to her location.
Venkatesan was taken into custody, while the woman filed a formal complaint with the Neelankarai Police. Upon interrogation of the cab driver, the police were also able track down his friends. They have been booked under section 4 of Women Harassment (Prevention) Act.
Reportedly, OLa has terminated the driver’s services and has blacklisted him.
