Help pours in for arrested Ola driver in Chennai

Chennai: Following the arrest of an Ola call taxi driver for allegedly threatening a woman passenger, a Tamil blogger has managed to mobilise cash over Rs 1.3 lakh to fund the arrested driver's legal expenses after his blog telling the other side of the story appeared on Tuesday.

The blogger Mamallan believes that the complainant had exaggerated and has also not disclosed everything about the incident in her Facebook account.

The blogger, in his version of the incident, questions report appearing in some newspapers and tries to reconstruct the entire event from the driver's perspective.

Impressed by the version he wrote after talking to the police and also depending on the versions of witnesses, people started sending contribution to the account of blogger Mamallan through e-transfer from Wednesday morning.

Mamallan points out that the media report said only the story of the woman passenger because she had said it on Facebook. The woman passenger, Vilasini Ramani, travelling from   Thiruvanmiyur to Valsaravakkam had asked the driver to slow down.

The driver told her that he can’t slow down and that she could get down if she has a problem. And she got down near Anna university. “The cab driver refused to leave and sat inside his vehicle. He got down after a few minutes and demanded that I pay him. When I refused to pay stating that he had asked me to get down and had not dropped me at my destination, he abused me and threatened to slit my throat,” she had said.

What had provoked the taxi driver to say that? Nobody seems to be asking Vilasini Ramani, says Mamallan.  “The auto driver who had witnessed the exchange of words had told the police that the driver wanted to get his payment for whatever distance she had travelled. When he asked her to pay, she abused him. Reacting to her abuses, he threatened her,” says Mamallan.

He waited for nearly 10 minutes for her to complete her conversation on her mobile so that he could ask for money. She finished talking only when the auto arrived. That is when he tried asking her for the money, Mamallan explains.

The call taxi driver got another pick up at Little Mount and had to travel on the same route Vilasini was travelling till SPIC junction. She might have mistaken it for the taxi driver following her.

Mamallan also noted that police probe team, which arrested the driver, was very much aware of circumstances but arrested him, fearing bad publicity. “I was told the driver would be out of jail by Friday. Whatever money I got from people who share my blog and agree with my view, will be transferred to his account,” Mamallan said.