Woman Journalist Accuses Uber Auto Driver Of Harassment, DCW Issues Notice

The Delhi Commission for Women has issued a notice to Uber India over the incident.

DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal said that a notice has been issued to Uber India and Delhi Police over the incident. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: The woman journalist was allegedly sexually harassed by an Uber auto driver during a ride to her friend's place in Delhi.

The journalist recounted her ordeal in a series of tweets in which she said that the auto driver had stared at her inappropriately while travelling from her residence in New Friends Colony to Malviya Nagar to visit her friend.

"I took an auto from my home to a friend's place. After a while, I noticed that the driver was looking at me through the side mirrors of the auto, precisely at my breasts. I shifted a bit towards the right and wasn't visible in the left side mirror. He then started looking into the right side of the mirror. I then shifted to the extreme left and wasn't visible in any of the mirrors. He then started looking back again and again to see me. I first tried using the safety feature of @uber, but to no avail," the journalist said in her tweets.

"The first time I dialled the number, the audio wasn't clear. I then confronted him and said that I would raise a complaint. I even asked him to focus on driving. To this, he said, "kardo" (do it) and I then redialed the number but couldn't hear the audio due to poor network," she said in another tweet.

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) reached out to the female journalist after she posted about the incident on Twitter. DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal said that a notice has been issued to Uber India and Delhi Police over the incident.

"Notice has been issued to Uber India and Delhi Police over the unfortunate incident of molestation of a female journalist in an Uber Auto in Delhi," Maliwal tweeted.

According to police, on March 2, at about 11:00 pm, the journalist, a resident of Bharat Nagar, approached NFC police station and filed a complaint against one TSR driver, identified as Vinod Kumar.

"She levelled allegations of indecent behaviour as well as lascivious staring by him, while she was travelling from NFC to Malviya Nagar on March 1 at about 4:40 pm Accordingly a case under relevant sections of IPC section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) was registered and investigation taken up," said a senior police official.

Efforts to trace and nab the accused are on. "The owner of the TSR, Mohd Yunus Khan is being questioned to nab the auto-driver," said the official.