The Delhi Police on Monday questioned the General Manager of the US-based cab company Uber. The Delhi Police is likely to arrest the country head of the cab company. Police officials will contemplate whether to file a case against Uber or not. There seems to gross negligence and abetment to the crime on part of the company whose General Manager was grilled at length by the North district police. In this case the company claimed on their website that they verify the backgrounds of all drivers, however this was not being followed at all. However, no names of any accused have been mentioned in the FIR since the clarity on who is the official in-charge in India is clear.
Uber’s General Manager (Marketing) Gagan Bhatia had appeared for questioning at the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) with two lawyers in the afternoon and was questioned by a team led by Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Brijendra Kumar Yadav. Bhatia stated that he would not comment on the issue until investigations are over and will lend full cooperation to the police.
Sources revealed that Bhatia could not give satisfactory replies to the police officers and also did not know much about the company’s functioning. When asked about his designation he first claimed to be the country head then the General Manager and then stated that he is the GM (Marketing). He further claimed that he is handling the operation of the company in India. Despite being questioned for several hours Bhatia did not divulge the information required by the police. “We wanted to know the role of the company while it brings the customer and the car driver into contact through its application. What is the liability of the company if the driver commits a crime as in this case and the verification processIJ What are the business model, how it works, the database log and the norms under which they hire the drivers,” said a senior police official. Investigating officers revealed that he first stated that there is no country head and he reports to someone who heads its operation at EMEA (Europe-Middle East-Asia). If Bhatia fails to give satisfactory answers we would call the EMEA head for questioning.
He added that they have come across gross violations on part of the company in terms of violation of the Motor Vehicle Act and others. The taxi did not have ‘All India Tourist Permit’ inscribed on the taxi, it also did not have a round yellow sign on the top of the taxi indicating that it’s a radio taxi, a point to point dropping permission in the Capital is required which he did not have, no Public Service Vehicle (PSV) badge and form and fire extinguisher and medical kits which are mandatory for all taxis was not present inside his cab.
later on Monday evening, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi also pointed out that there were ‘certain gaps in the system’ and said that the company ‘had certain responsibility’ in the case. With the expansion of internet, certain virtual platforms have come up, Uber was one of them. They had been working without any permission from the transport authorities and there are certain gaps in the system. They had been bringing the two together, one the taxi operator as well as the customer through a virtual platform.