Bengaluru: Auto driver misbehaves with women
The two women passengers had to jump out of the vehicle for their safety.
BENGALURU: “Policemen can’t do anything to me. They are my friends. If you want to, then go ahead and complain against me. Nothing will happen,” was the retort by a auto-rickshaw driver to two women commuters when they tried to reprimand him for his misbehaviour.
The ordeal didn’t end here for them. The driver not only demanded excess fare but also allegedly hurled abuses at the women. The two women passengers had to jump out of the vehicle for their safety.
In what can be seen as a major setback to the promises made by the Bengaluru traffic police to provide safe rides to their city commuters and keep a sharp watch on such rogue auto-rickshaw drivers, the auto bullies continue to rule the roost.
The incident took place on January 1, at around 9 pm. Mithali Shetty, a software professional and a resident of Bannerghatta Road said, “We took an auto-rickshaw from Dell office (Koramangala ring road). As we were a group of five friends, we took two auto-rickshaws. After boarding the auto-rickshaw, the driver started shouting to the other auto drivers to charge us Rs 150 which was not communicated to us in the beginning. As we refused and asked him to stop the vehicle, he started riding in a rash manner. It was then we realized that he was completely drunk. When I told him I would call the police, he said ‘The police are my friends. They can’t do anything to me’ and continued his crazy ride.”
However, the drunken driver ran out of luck when he got stuck at the traffic. Mithali, who had contacted her friends, stopped the auto-rickshaw next to Oasis mall, but just when Mithali thought it was over, the rowdy auto-rickshaw driver came charging at her friend and was about to push her outside the auto when she jumped out of the auto-rickshaw to save herself.
Mithali began frantically calling the police control room on 100 but her calls went unanswered. It was only after 15 minutes that Mithali was finally able to get through to the control room. “A lady finally picked the call. I narrated the entire incident to her and asked her to send the Hoyasala,” added Mithali.
It was with the help of other auto-rickshaw drivers, that Mithali and her friends could escape from the spot. "We will look into the matter and will initiate action against the errant auto-rickshaw driver," said a senior police officer.