A Gurugram resident was threatened and abused by her Ola driver last week for refusing to pay an arbitrarily high fare. The incident took place early Friday morning when the Gurugram resident was on her way to the airport. Puja S (as she was identified in her LinkedIn profile) eventually booked a new cab while the driver stood by and hurled threats and abuse.
“After only 10 minutes of driving, the driver asked to stop to refill his water bottles. I agreed, but soon after, he claimed that the vehicle would not start unless I paid via a QR code he presented. I asked him to end the ride first so I could confirm the amount, but instead he insisted that I pay first and threatened not to let me continue until I did so,” she wrote in a lengthy LinkedIn post.
The driver became “increasingly aggressive” and threatened when Puja tried to order a new taxi. She recalled feeling intimidated and unsafe when the man warned her that he would “come back at night and show you what happens.” He continued to shout and even took a video of the passenger without her consent (and refused to delete it) while she waited for the new ride.
“During those 10-15 minutes of harassment, he even raised his hand as if to hit me and said: ‘I’m going to hit you so hard“I was shocked, but I told him that if he dared to touch me there would be consequences. His reaction was to laugh and continue with his verbal abuse,” she added.
