App-based taxi aggregators Ola and Uber have a knack for staying in the news. About a month ago, a woman in Bengaluru was by locked in an Ola cab by its driver, asked personal questions and offered a cigarette. The incident followed on the heels of two others. In July, a woman in Delhi caught her Ola driver filming her in the car, weeks after Uber cab driver threatened to rape his passenger in Kolkata.
On Saturday, in another shocking turn, an Uber cab driver abducted a 15-year-old boy in Bengaluru and drove around the city with him for several hours, The Hindu reported. Not only did the accused driver, Tabrez, took away the boy's phone but he also asked him to hide in rear leg space for about three hours.
According to reports, the boy had booked the cab for Sarjapur after his tuition classes at HSR Layout at 6.30 pm. After he didn't get back home till 7.30 pm, his parents got worried. When they tried to call his number, they found it switched off. After they traced the driver's number through Uber and called him, he told them the boy had been dropped home a while back. According to another report, the boy's father got a call from the driver saying he had abducted his son and would release him only if he paid a ransom.
It was only after he received a call from the police that Tabrez got nervous and dropped the boy at a hotel in Whitefield, without giving him back his cell phone and school bag. The boy approached the staff there for help, who contacted his parents and he was rescued well after midnight.
According to a report in The New Indian Express, instead of helping the police with details regarding the errant driver, Uber kept delaying disclosure of crucial information on the grounds of seeking permission. The police have registered a case of negligence against the company.
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