Two weeks ago, an Uber cab driver in Kolkata threatened his 27-year-old passenger with rape -- "rape korey debo" -- while steering the taxi towards an isolated road in the city. Couple of months ago, an Ola cab driver was arrested in Delhi on charges of molesting a Belgian woman. And last year, an Uber cab driver was sentenced to life imprisonment until (natural) death for raping a woman executive in his taxi.
Instead of improving with time, women's security in radio taxis is worsening.
Last week, Delhi resident Priyanka Gusain caught her Ola taxi driver filming her surreptitiously.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Gusain wrote:
"As the cab moved on for the destination, I went about checking my emails and answering some important work related phone calls. However, I sensed something extremely strange about the cab driver. His body posture was defensive and he would constantly look at me in the rear view mirror. Not knowing whether to trust my gut feeling, I discounted it as my brain telling me to be cautious."
She was travelling to Chanakyapuri in an Ola cab and it was around 12:43 pm.
Gusain then spotted a phone in the driver's hand which was placed at an angle that allowed him to film the inside of the car.
She asked the driver to pull over and managed to take his phone.
"There it was, a video of me, all of me. My every gesture, movement, each word uttered was recorded on his phone. Never in my life did I ever feel this violated," she wrote in her post.
Gusain immediately called the emergency helpline and, upon arriving, the police arrested the driver and registered an FIR.
However, the police told her that as nothing could be seen in the video, the driver will be out on bail in two days. "Par madam iss mein aisa kuch dikh toh nahi raha hai," the police said to her.
"Madam, ye chhoot jayega," a police officer told Gusain.
Gusain also complained to Ola after the incident, but they didn't respond until she wrote about her experience on Ola's Facebook page.
When Gusain first wrote the post on the Ola page, the cab-sharing app had an automated response: "Apologies for the bad experience the team will get in touch with you regarding the issue."
Later, Ola officials got in touch with her. The Ola employee have reportedly apologized and told her that the driver's Ola connection had been jammed and he won't be driving for them anymore.
"The driver partner has been terminated from our platform to ensure such experience by any of our customers is avoided," Ola told HuffPost India in email.
Meanwhile, her post seems to have opened a can of worms for Ola. Many people started complaining against Ola on the same post.
Here's Gusain's Facebook post: