A woman in Bengaluru was allegedly threatened and abused by a Namma Yatri auto driver early on Sunday. The woman with two others, and a child were returning home from another friend's place around 4 am when the incident happened.
Taking to X, Vanshita Agarwal, a content writer for mental health firms who hails from Assam, recalled the "most unsafe and scary auto ride of my life". Tagging the Namma Yatri app, she wrote, "Your driver threatened us, called us ‘ch*****’ and ‘mada*****’ and started coming close to us almost as if he would hit us." She also claimed that she used the SOS feature of the app but the helpline executives did not help, disconnected the call, and never called back.
"We were three women (one kid) travelling back home from a friend’s place. The driver demanded extra cash saying we had put the wrong location but it’s the same landmark we put each time and are dropped in the correct place. There was no misunderstanding," Agarwal, who is in her early twenties, said.
The auto driver, however, started arguing about the meter price and claimed that the app fare was too low. When the women insisted on paying the fare shown on the app, the driver got furious and started shouting and abusing them.
At this point, the women got scared. They entered the society's premises and stood at the gate while Agarwal used the app's SOS feature and called on the police helpline number.
Seeing her on the phone, the driver allegedly demanded that he speak to the person on call. "I did not give my phone to him because it would have been unsafe and we were terrified at this point. He started coming even closer to us and I told him firmly not to enter the gate or I will call my dad," Agarwal said.
That did not deter the auto driver, who continued shouting and threatening. "The executive on the call has heard all of his threats and yelling. He kept asking me the address to which I couldn’t respond because the auto driver was constantly yelling in my face," she said.
"We quickly paid him the amount shown on the app and told him to back off. He kept shouting still and then when I finally gave the address on the phone to the executive and said ‘please come fast, he is being almost violent now’. He got scared and went back to his vehicle."
But the driver continued to abuse them. "He kept yelling 'tum ch***** log’, ‘madar****’ and ‘chu****’ ...constantly repeating it at the top of his voice, looking straight at us, and threatening us... we have never felt more unsafe in our entire lives," Agarwal said.
Tagging the Bengaluru city police and the traffic police, she asked for advice on what anyone in their situation could have done when no help--even from the SOS feature--was available.
"What should one do in such situations? The SOS on the app doesn’t work and even the executives at 112 clearly DO NOT CARE. We were on a call with them in such a panic state and they have not even gotten back to us to see if we’re safe!" Agarwal said, adding that the incident has scarred her and her companions. "We’re always going to be scared to step in any auto or cab from now on. This whole incident could have ended in very worse ways."
The Bengaluru city police took note of the incident and asked Agarwal to send them her contact details over DM so they could get in touch with her.
Namma Yatri also responded to her post. "Hi Vanshita, We are really sorry to hear about the experience you have been through. We at Namma Yatri take safety concerns very seriously. Thanks for sharing the details. Please do allow us some time to check this and get back to you," it stated.
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