Kolkata: Bengali actress Swastika Dutta accuses Uber driver of harassing her on road
Kolkata, July 12 (IBNS): Kickstarting the debate over safety of women in app cabs, Bengali actress Swastika Dutta has accused an Uber driver of harassing her and pulling her out of the car while she was on her way to shooting.
Swastika, a television actress, detailed the entire incident on Facebook where she said Jamshed, the driver, had cancelled the trip in the middle of her journey and asked her to get out of the car. When she refused, Jamshed had allegedly took the actress to his own locality and pulled her out of the cab.
The actress said the entire incident occurred in front of DevDas Restaurant on EM Bypass between 8:15 am and 8:45 am few days ago.
"This actually happened to Me, I was humiliated,I was literally thrown out of the car the reason was I had booked uber service from my Home to my studio (Dassani 2,Rania) exactly at 8.15am,today,this Guy named Jamshed,after picking me up from my location suddenly in the middle of the road he cancelled the trip and asked me to get down from the car,when I refused and suddenly turned the car to an opposite direction and took me to his locality and started abusing me,he got down from the car,opened the door and literally pulled me out... when I lost my temper and started asking for help he threatened me and called other boys.." Swastika wrote in her Facebook post.
Reacting to the incident, Uber spokesperson said in a statement, "What’s been described is deeply concerning. This is a clear violation of the safety standards set by our community guidelines, and we have removed the driver’s access to the app. We stand ready to support law enforcement authorities in their investigations."
The incident occurred just days after former Miss Universe Ushoshi Sengupta had alleged that her cab driver was harassed by a group of men at Exide More, not much far away from downtown Kolkata.
Ushoshi said one police officer refused to act citing the case does not fall in the jurisdiction of his police station. Later when she had protested, the group of men had followed Swastika and her friend who was also in the same cab.
Though the administration had swiftly arrested the accused they were later granted bail. Few police officers were also suspended due to the incident.
Image Credit: Swastika Dutta Facebook
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