Woman journalist alleges harassment by Uber driver in Delhi

New Delhi:  A woman journalist with a leading media house alleged that she was sexually harassed by an Uber auto-rickshaw driver during a ride from her residence to her friend’s place in southeast Delhi.

The incident occurred on Wednesday and the journalist also shared a video of the incident on social media.

Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal issued a notice to Uber India and Delhi Police over the incident.

“Notice has been issued to Uber India and Delhi Police over the unfortunate incident of molestation of a female journalist in an Uber Auto in Delhi,” Maliwal tweeted.

Narrating her ordeal on Twitter, the woman journalist said that when she boarded an auto-rickshaw from her residence in New Friends Colony to Malviya Nagar to visit her friend, the driver, identified as Vinod Kumar, started staring at her inappropriately through the side mirrors of the auto, precisely at her breasts.

“I took an auto from my home to a friend’s place. After a while, I noticed that the driver was looking at me through the side mirrors of the auto, precisely at my breasts. I shifted a bit towards right and wasn’t visible in the left side mirror,” she said in a tweet.

“He then started looking into the right side of the mirror. I then shifted to the extreme left and wasn’t visible in any of the mirrors. He then started looking back again and again to see me. I first tried using the safety feature of @uber, but to no avail,” she said in another tweet.

“The first time I dialled the number, the audio wasn’t clear. I then confronted him and said that I would raise a complaint. I even asked him to focus on driving. To this, he said, “kardo” (do it) and I then redialed the number but couldn’t hear the audio due to poor network,” she said in another tweet.

According to police, on March 2, at about 11.00 p.m., the journalist, a resident of Bharat Nagar, approached NFC police station and filed a complaint against one TSR driver.

“She levelled allegations of indecent behaviour as well as lascivious staring by him, while she was travelling from NFC to Malviya Nagar on March 1 at about 4.40 p.m. Accordingly a case under relevant sections of IPC was registered and investigation taken up,” said a senior police official.

“The owner of the TSR, Mohd Yunus Khan is being questioned to nab the auto-driver,” said the official.

–IANS

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