Ola cab driver arrested for allegedly raping woman passenger in Bhopal; company fires driver

Bhopal: An Ola car driver has been arrested for allegedly raping a woman passenger, the police said on 3 January. The alleged incident took place on 29 December, but the victim, a 28-year-old married woman, lodged the complaint on January 1 as the accused Dipak Bamane had warned her not to disclose the incident to anyone, inspector Suryakant Awasthi of Koh-e-Fiza police station said. [caption id=“attachment_2564502” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] Bamane picked up the woman, who works with a private hospital, from her house on December 29. However, he stopped along a deserted stretch of road between Bairagarh and Gandhi Nagar and allegedly raped her inside the cab. He threatened to kill her if she complained to anyone, the police officer said. After the woman told her husband about the incident three days later, the two approached the police following which Bamane was arrested yesterday. Bamane lives near the victim’s house and possibly knew her, inspector Awasthi said. He had been working with Ola for the last few months. Police had seized the car, the inspector added. Further probe is on. Meanwhile, Ola in a statement here said that at the time of the incident the driver was not logged on its platform. “We have terminated the driver from the platform with immediate effect…We will offer all support in providing whatever information (is) required by them (police),” said Anand Subramanian, Senior Director, Marketing Communications, Ola. PTI