Chennai: Student Says Uber Auto Driver Sexually Assaulted Her, Narrates Ordeal In Twitter Thread

In her tweet, she said that the driver fled from the spot after she raised an alarm.

Auto-rickshaws stayed off the roads to protest against cab aggregators such as Uber and Ola (Source: File photo/Getty)

New Delhi: A student studying journalism in Chennai has accused an Uber auto driver of molesting her. She said the driver inappropriately touched her when she was getting down from the auto after completing a ride. The student lodged a complaint with the police who are said to be in the process of registering an FIR at the Chemanchery police station. The incident took place Monday. Uber has expressed regret over the matter.

“An Uber Auto driver named Selvam sexually assaulted me by pressing my right breast, near Ibis OMR Hotel, when my friend and I returned from East Coast Madras to the hotel," she wrote, tagging Tamil Nadu Police.

In a subsequent tweet, she added that the driver fled from the spot after she raised an alarm. Following the incident, the woman claimed she dialed the police but "there was no response".

After 30 minutes, a policeman reached the hotel with another man, she claimed, but there was no woman cop. "He asked us to wait till the morning to file an FIR as there was no lady officer at the station. "It's an order by the government," he said, when asked about the lady officer," her tweet read.

"He was also not letting us go to the police station to file an offline FIR," she said, adding that she was not allowed inside the police station when they reached there, as "women are not allowed (in police stations) during the night."

The student further said, "I had to file the complaint outside the station. Also, the station in charge gave us an A4 sheet to write an application instead of an FIR. (Usually, the Police ask you to file an application instead of an FIR, to suppress the matter and to avoid the work load)."

Meanwhile, Uber has also reacted to the incident and asked the woman to share the details of her ride. 

“Hey, this is concerning. Please share the registered details via direct message with which the trip was requested. We'll follow up,” the reply read.