Mindful of her safety the minute she set foot aboard an Uber cab, the 21-year-old woman who was allegedly molested here over the weekend said she had no inkling of the ill intentions that a seemingly innocuous handshake could mask till last Saturday.
Narrating her ordeal to The Hindu , the complainant said she had deliberately chosen not to approach the police with a complaint pertaining to the incident over two whole days of deliberation simply because she lacked faith ‘in the system’.
“When I reached my destination and accepted my receipt, the driver — he said his name was Vinod — extended his hand and said, ‘ Bahaut achcha laga aap se mil ke (It was very nice meeting you)’ before kissing me and trying to pull me towards him for whatever else he had on his mind,” she told The Hindu .
“I was completely aware of the risks involved; feeling unsafe sitting in the back while passing though a secluded area near the Gurgaon toll road before the incident, I made him stop the cab and sat in front so that I would be in a position to force the car to stop if there was an emergency. I didn’t know being polite enough to reciprocate his gesture would lead to all this instead of anything else,” she added.
According to her, she was en route her friends’ residence in Gurgaon after attending a dance class at West Delhi’s Tagore Garden on May 30. This wasn’t the first time that she had availed of the San Francisco-based cab aggregator’s service.
She said the accused driver’s attempt at molesting her was triggered at the conclusion of an emotionally distressing drive through a secluded slip road connecting National Highway-8 to Gurgaon, during which she felt ‘afraid’.
“I’ve grown up being eve teased,” she said when asked why she hadn’t approached the proper authorities with her complaint earlier. “In my experience, police complaints go unheard so I don’t know whether or not to approach them this time,” she added. An Uber representative said, “Uber has a zero-tolerance policy towards inappropriate behaviour and immediate action has already been taken.” The Gurgaon Police have registered a case of molestation and promised to arrest the accused driver at the earliest.
