Weird people live there: Ola sacks driver for refusing to drop man in 'Muslim area'

New Delhi: Call cab aggregator Ola swept into action and “off-roaded” one of its drivers who refused to ferry a passenger to his destination at Delhi’s Jamia Nagar. The call cab service provider’s response came after the passenger, a journalist by profession, posted on Facebook to share his ordeal in which he mentioned that the driver dropped him at a secluded place and threatened him. A police complaint was filed by the journalist later.

30-year-old Asad Ashraf took the cab to return to his home at South Delhi’s Jamia Nagar after celebrating Eid on Sunday. "Wahan ajeeb log rehte hain! (Weird people live there)," the cab driver responded, Ashraf told NDTV.

The driver, Ashok Kumar, called Jamia Nagar a “filthy locality” and spoke rudely to Ashraf when he confronted him. 

"I realised the cab was headed in the wrong direction soon after I boarded it. I confronted the driver and he threatened me with dire consequences insisting I should get off the cab," Ashraf said, recounting the incident.

In the Facebook post, Ashraf said the driver dropped him at a secluded spot and sped off. He alleged that the Ola driver refused the route because Jamia Nagar is a Muslim-dominated locality.

Ashraf added that he "raised an emergency alarm on the app after which an executive from OLA got back to me and ensured immediate action." But no action was taken even after an hour. He said he also filed a complaint with the Delhi Police.

On Monday afternoon, Ola posted a tweet: "Ola, like India, believes in secularity & will never allow any sort of discrimination."

After the cab operator took action against the driver, Ashraf wrote, “Ok. So, half the battle is won. But there is more left.”

Ola had posted a similar tweet in April when a passenger tweeted to say that he did not book a cab because driver was a Muslim.