New Delhi: The issue of women’s safety has once again come to the fore, and the steps ride-sharing platforms need to take to ensure their security after a horrific incident that took place in Haryana’s Gurugram. A man who was operating for Rapido, an Indian ride-hailing service, which primarily operates as a bike taxi aggregator, has been accused of sending a female customer objectionable messages after she booked a Rapido ride.
The driver was confronted and apprehended by her husband after he sent inappropriate messages to the latter’s wife. The husband, identified as Abhimanyu, shared on Instagram a video of the confrontation in which he has exposed the misconduct of the driver.
The harassment and the confrontation
In his Instagram post, Abhimanyu revealed that the accused driver was operating under the Rapido ID of someone else, which raises serious concerns about the safety of women. The information has invoked questions about the driver verification process of the company and the broader implications for passenger safety.
In video, Abhimanyu first explains that his wife, after booking the ride, messaged the driver to ask if he had arrived at the pickup location. The driver, instead of giving an appropriate and polite response, sent his contact number and offered to come to her residence if she was alone. As per reports, he wrote, “Give me your flat number. I am coming if you are alone at home”, and also shared his personal contact details with her.
Watch the video here
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The woman then informed her husband, who confronted the accused. The husband, Abhimanyu, went after the driver and confronted him, capturing the encounter on video, and posting it on social media. In the footage, the driver can be seen apologizing for his behavior and is also claiming the incident was a misunderstanding. He pleads with Abhimanyu to let him go, and claimed that he misinterpreted the message from Abhimanyu’s wife, allegedly taking her question as a hint to got to her place.
Abhimanyu tagged Rapido in his post, and criticized the company and asked it about the accountability of their drivers. He wrote in the video’s caption how could such an incident take place and what is the accountability of Rapido. He also asked how could a driver operate on the app with the ID of someone else and informed that at the time of posting the video, the couple had not received any resolution from the app-service platform, and they were not even called.
The response of Rapido
As the video gained traction on social media, many users praised Abhimanyu for confronting the accused and for highlighting the lack of women safety in app-based transport services. While one user praised him for handling the situation brilliantly, another user criticized Rapido’s initial lack of action on the incident and the platform should have reported it to the police.
Rapido has reponded by informing that they have barred the driver and the individual associated with the alternate ID from the platform. The company said that they take misconduct very seriously and are using the users’ feedback to strengthen captain training and monitoring to prevent such incidents in the future.
