Uber suspends accounts of driver/passenger after altercation

Bengaluru, Aug 19: Online taxi firm Uber cabs, embroiled in controversies over misconduct by its drivers with women passengers, today said it has suspended the accounts of a passenger and a driver, following an alleged fracas involving them which led to traffic jam for nearly two hours in the city.

"We have suspended both the passenger and driver account until further investigation. If either party wishes to file a complaint with the police, we are happy to assist in the investigation," a company spokesperson said in a statement. A source in Uber said no police complaint, however, had been filed and the matter had been settled between the driver and the woman passenger.

According to the source, two passengers had boarded the cab to travel from Koramangala to Bellandur and trouble started when the driver allegedly refused to drop one of them at the final destination. "We heard both versions of the incident. Versions of the driver and the passenger. The driver first dropped one passenger 500 meters away from Bellundur Tech Park. The driver refused to take a woman passenger to her destination, three kms away from the tech park," the source said.

The driver asked her to re-book the travel, but the passenger refused to do so, which resulted in the fracas, the source said. The driver alleged that the woman assaulted him, but she denied it and instead made a counter-charge that the former hit her, the source said. The US-based Uber faced a temporary ban in New Delhi in the wake of a woman passenger alleging rape by one of its drivers in December last.

PTI