NOIDA: An Uber cab driver was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly abusing and threatening a group of women passengers after they asked him to take an underpass to avoid traffic during a ride from Botanical Garden to Sector 128 in Noida. The driver allegedly shoved one of the women and pulled out a pipe from the car’s trunk and threatened to hit her. In a 33-second video shared on Instagram, complainant Tashu Gupta claimed the driver warned: “Aaj tujhe maarke jail bhi jana pade to chala jaunga (I will kill you even if I have to go to jail for that).” Gupta, a model, said she had booked the Uber ride along with four female friends around 9am on Tuesday from Botanical Garden metro station. A few minutes into the ride, the women asked the driver to take the Botanical Garden underpass instead of a U-turn prompted on Google Maps to avoid a traffic jam. They claimed to take the route regularly and insisted that he followed their direction.
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“But the driver insisted on following the route prompted on Google Maps and told us to keep quiet. He said, ‘Chup chap se baithi reh, jo maps par dikha raha hai vahi se leke jauga (Sit quietly, I will follow the route prompted on the map)’,” the complainant said. When asked to speak politely, the driver allegedly lashed out, and it led to an argument. Subsequently, the women told him to stop the car, but the driver demanded money before they stepped out. “As I was stepping out of the car, he pushed me, and said, ‘Nikal yahan se, aur paise de (get out of the cab and pay up)’,” Gupta said. When the group refused to pay the fare, the driver pulled over the car, walked to the trunk and pulled out a pipe. In the video, which has since garnered 1.8 million views and over 2,000 comments on Instagram, he can be seen brandishing the pipe and saying, “paise de”. The complainant said that when the driver aggressively approached her friends, who were recording the incident, and asked them to delete the video. As one of the women called the police helpline for help, the accused put the pipe back in the trunk and drove off. Police said the driver, Brajesh Kumar, who is in his late 30s, was arrested on Wednesday under BNS sections 170 (arrest to prevent commission of cognizable offences), 135 (inquiry as to truth of information) and 126 (security of keeping peace) after an FIR was registered against him at Sector 39 police station. The Maruti Ertiga was also seized. “The incident took place near Golf Course metro station. The women passengers wanted to use the offline route while the cab driver insisted on using the map. This led to an argument. The cab driver claimed the women misbehaved with him and also pulled his hair,” said a police official, adding that he was sent to judicial custody. Uber has not responded to repeated queries.
