Women safety has, for a number of years, been arguably the most important requirement to meet for authorities and officials in some of India's leading cities. However, despite taking several measures, sexual assault or sexual harassment cases continue to hit headlines across the country on a regular basis.
A Bengaluru woman had a harrowing experience on Wednesday after she was sexually assaulted by a Rapido auto driver and was thrown out of a moving vehicle. One of the woman's friends-identified as Ankur Bagchi-narrated the incident on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, urging others not to use the aggregator service.
"Rapido enables sexual predators. Do not use Rapido. One of my friends got sexually assaulted last night by a @rapidobikeapp auto driver. She was touched inappropriately and when she pushed back, she was thrown out of a moving auto," Bagchi wrote on Thursday.
Reacting to the social media post, Rapido said after checking their database they found that the auto driver was registered with the aggregator service and he was located and taken to a police station.
"To clarify, we confirm that the 'auto ride' in question did not occur on the Rapido platform. Nevertheless, as a responsible corporate entity, we have taken immediate action to address the concerns raised by conducting an internal search within our auto driver database. It has been identified that the mentioned auto driver is indeed registered with Rapido."
"In response to this discovery, our dedicated Rapido team promptly located and accompanied the driver to the relevant police station, where the complainant was also present. Upon questioning by the police authorities, the auto driver provided a statement asserting that no such incident took place. However, recognizing the seriousness of the complaint, the police authorities have registered an FIR and initiated an investigation into the matter," Rapido said in a statement.
