Ola driver, 2 others held for harassing woman passenger

A driver of app-based cab service provider Ola and two of his friends have been arrested here for harassing a woman who was travelling in the taxi alone, police said today.
The incident took place on Sunday night when the victim had hired a Ola cab from Injambakkam to Anna Nagar, police said in a release.
However, the driver, identified as Venkatesan, stopped the car enroute the journey and two of his friends got inside the vehicle, it said.
The complainant "felt insecure" seeing a man sitting near her and got down from the cab and lodged a complaint with the Neelanakarai Police, the release said.

A case was registered under section 4 of Women Harassment Act and Venkatesan and his friends -- Muthupandi and Sakthi were arrested, it said.
Meanwhile, an Ola spokesperson said that the driver has been "blacklisted and terminated from the Ola platform".

In order to ensure safe travel of citizens, especially women, Chennai Police was in discussion with call taxi operators and initiated a number of 'proactive steps,' it said.
These include working out a system to check drivers' antecedents properly before employing them, their monitoring, and to work out modalities to ensure safety of women passengers booking cabs on share basis especially during the night, Ola said.

In a separate incident, a 21 year-old engineering student who allegedly videographed a woman in "obscene" manner, was arrested today.
Samuel had shot a video of the woman while she was changing her dress and shared it among his friends, police said.
When the woman came to know about it, she reported the matter to her mother who filed a complaint with at the all-women police station in Egmore.
Samuel was produced before a court and later lodged in Puzhal jail, they said.