A share-cab ride to office turned out to be a nightmare for a woman who has alleged that she was attacked by her co-passenger in a shared Uber cab on Monday.
The victim, Ushnota Paul, is a reputed journalist working in Lower Parel who took to her Twitter account to describe the entire terrifying incident. According to her tweets, the co-rider was furious that she was getting dropped last even though she was paying the most. When Paul defended the driver, the accused, a fellow woman, started targeting her.
The woman hurled cuss words on Paul and passed racist comments. When the journalist tried to get a picture of the accused, the woman snatched her phone and threatened to break it. Before stepping out of the car at her stop near Urmi Estate in Lower Parel, the accused physically attacked Paul, grabbed her by her hair and scratched her face. The woman soon fled inside her office building.
At the point when you’re attacked, you have no sense as to what has happened. I was in a state of shock and it didn’t even occur to me that the woman has run away.”
Ushnota filed a police complaint at Lower Parel Police Station. While the police were supportive, Uber did not take the case well and refused to disclose personal information of the accused to the police stating customer privacy.
Speaking of the cab driver, Paul said, “When we were at the police station later, the driver told me that he had got down from the driver’s seat, opened her side of the car and asked the woman to get out. That’s how she finally left. If it wasn’t for the driver, she wouldn’t have spared me and have assaulted me more.”
Ushnota told Mumbai Live that Uber had called her in the afternoon assured her that they are looking into the matter. The company has suspended the co-passenger’s Uber user account. The driver, being the only eye-witness of the scene also reported the same Uber account to the police.
I want the woman to be identified at any cost. I demand Uber to cooperate and share her details with the police so that required action could be taken against her,” said Paul.
The journalist questions women’s safety in the city and hopes Uber realises the gravity of the situation and brings to book the woman.
No one in their right mind would just literally bash someone like that. Though I don’t want to comment on someone’s mental condition, her behaviour rightly justified that she might be a psychopath.”
Paul wrote in her tweets that she takes shared Uber rides to and fro work daily. She firmly believes that women should defend themselves and stand up for what is right.
I’m not giving up yet; this is physical assault, this is racial assault. I will leave no stones unturned to take this case up legally and there’s no way I’ll ever let it go.” Paul told Mumbai Live.
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