Drunk Ola drivers gangrape, kill minor in Kolkata: Accused arrested, body recovered

In a horrifying incident, a 12-year-old girl was reportedly gangraped and strangled by two men in an Ola cab in Kolkata on Wednesday. According to reports, the body was found near a canal.

Kolkata: 2 cab drivers arrested for allegedly gang-raping and killing a 12-yr-old girl, body recovered.

— ANI (@ANI) August 31, 2016

The accused have been arrested and according to police sources, the drivers confessed to picking up the girl from a footpath when they were drunk, CNN-News18 reported.

#BREAKING | 12 year old girl gang-raped and strangled by 2 men in an Ola cab on Tuesday night in Kolkata; Accused arrested

— News18 (@CNNnews18) August 31, 2016

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This is not a solitary incident which brings into question the safety and security of taxis run by cab aggregators like Ola and Uber but this is the first time that such a heinous crime has been reported in Kolkata. According to Hindustan Times, Shankar Shaw and Guddu Singh told the police that they picked up the minor after they were drunk and were looking for some “merriment.” After killing her, Shaw and Singh threw her body into a canal below the Park Circus flyover. “Around 5 AM we received information that a girl was picked up in a car. From traffic control room the number of the car was established,” Hindustan Times quoted a Kolkata Police officer as saying. In December 2015, an Ola driver had raped a woman passenger in Delhi, according to this Firstpost article. The driver stopped the vehicle at a deserted location and raped the woman in the car, threatening to kill her if she told anyone. In May, 2016 a Belgian national was allegedly molested by an Ola cab driver in Delhi. Uber has been under the scanner since can driver Shiv Kumar Yadav raped a woman executive in Delhi on 5 December. According to the police, the woman had dozed off on the back seat of the car, and she later woke up to find that the car had stopped at a secluded spot. When she tried to raise an alarm, the driver is said to have assaulted and raped her. Meanwhile, Ola released a statement about the Kolkata incident:

“We are saddened by the reports of the alleged misbehaviour of a driver in Kolkata. On preliminary identification of the cab details shared by authorities, we have suspended the account associated with this cab with immediate effect. As per our records, this incident has not occurred while on the Ola platform. We will work with the authorities to share any information that will help support their investigation.”