The Ola Cabs on Sunday distanced itself from the driver, who was arrested on the charge of raping a woman inside his cab in Bhopal.
In a statement issued here, Ola stated that the driver was not logged on to its platform at the time of the incident. “At the time of the reported incident, the said driver was not logged on to the Ola platform. We have terminated the driver from the platform with immediate effect,” the statement said.
“We have requested the police to expedite the case further with the respective parties and we will offer all support in providing whatever information (is) required by them to investigate this complicated case,” it added.
Notably, the Ola cab driver had allegedly raped a 28-year-old woman passenger in Bhopal when she hired a taxi to return to home after work on December 29.
The accused, who was working with Ola for a past few months, has been arrested. It is being said that he was known to the victim.
The incident took place on December 29 evening when the victim, who works at a private hospital here, was returning home after duty when the cab driver Deepak Bamane, said to be her old acquaintance, told her that he would drop at her house. But when the woman got into the cab, instead of taking her to house, Deepak took her to a secluded place on Airport Road and raped her.
The woman informed her husband about the incident but he reportedly preferred to remain silent due to the humiliation it causes. Finally, the woman lodged a case with the Koh-e-Fiza police station on Friday and the case came to light on Saturday. Deepak was arrested from lalghati area on Sunday, police added.
The Aaam Aadmi Party (AAP) organised a protest and demonstration over the rape incident in old Subhash Nagar area here on Sunday. Condemning the incident, the party alleged that law and order situation in the State, particularly in the capital, was deteriorating day by day.