An app cab driver has been arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman scooterist and her friend who tried to protest against the driver’s alleged reckless driving.
The incident happened around 8.15pm on Thursday when the woman scooterist was returning to her Behala home in southwest Kolkata from her Salt Lake Sector V office in northeast Kolkata with a friend riding pillion.
“The app cab that was carrying passengers tried to overtake the scooter on James Long Sarani in a dangerous way. The scooter overtook the cab and forced it to stop,” said an officer.
The woman has purportedly told police that the driver was typing on his mobile phone and simultaneously driving with one hand.
When the scooterist confronted the driver and asked him why he was trying to overtake their two-wheeler in a reckless manner and told him that he should not use his mobile phone while driving, the driver allegedly came out of the car and kicked the scooter, an officer said.
“He also pushed the woman and started abusing her verbally. When her male friend who was riding pillion tried to intervene, the driver punched him on his nose,” the officer added.
The woman had then dialled 100 to inform the police, following which officers of Behala police station went to the spot and arrested the driver.
The accused driver, identified as Babai Samanta, 32, has been charged with sections of wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing hurt, criminal intimidation, outrage of modesty of a woman, outrage of modesty of a woman using lewd gestures and words.
The charges if proved in court could lead to a maximum punishment of five years in jail.
This is not the first time an app cab driver has been accused of misbehaving with passengers or other motorists.
A cab driver was arrested at New Market in central Kolkata a few weeks ago for allegedly assaulting a passenger when he protested against the driver’s demand for extra payment because he was asked to take a route which did not match with the one shown on the app cab driver’s mobile phone.
Another app cab driver was arrested on charges of sexually harassing a passenger after an altercation between them over the fare.
The incident happened in June this year at the Central Avenue and Zakaria Street crossing when the woman was getting off the vehicle at her destination.
In January this year, an app cab driver and three other men were arrested for allegedly robbing a man who had boarded the cab thinking it was a shuttle taxi in front of a bar on EM Bypass early on Christmas morning.