Mumbai Cops Probe Ex-Ola Driver For App Manipulation

The Mumbai police are investigating three Ola ex-drivers for allegedly manipulating the app to calculate more distance, resulting in higher fares.

During the interrogation of a former driver and two others arrested on November 1, police found names of 40 other cab drivers who were given the apps. 

Police said that the accused would park outside the airport and only take long-distance rides, and during the course of the drive would switch the app on and off in a manner that it added nearly 20 km to the ride, thereby increasing the fare, police said.

Police said out of the three drivers arrested in the case, one of them, a former driver with the cab aggregator, gave outdated Ola apps to cab drivers who used them to cheat people. “Maybe, he found a glitch in the system while driving around or someone else informed him about it,” the officer said.

Last week, a sessions court rejected the bail plea of the former driver on grounds that the trio’s arrest was just the “tip of the iceberg”.

According to police, over 40 other cab drivers were also involved in the fraud. An officer from the Crime Branch (Unit I) said police had summoned Ola officials to join the investigation much earlier, but they had not appeared as yet.

“We were informed by Ola officials that due to the Covid lockdown, their offices in Maharashtra were shut. They have now told us that officials from Bengaluru will appear before the Crime Branch in a day or two,” an officer told Indian Express. 

Earlier in June 2020, Bengaluru police had arrested four drivers working with Ola for allegedly duping the company of lakhs of rupees by creating fake rides for a commission using a fake location app has raised a few key questions about the reliability of Ola’s technology measures to prevent such fraud. 

The arrested group allegedly confessed to have downloaded Mock Locations (fake GPS path) app to trick the company into believing they are ferrying passengers around. Available on the Google Play Store, Mock Locations app enables the user to generate fake phone location information.

Correction: November 11 | 1:22 PM
The previous headline had erroneously mentioned Ola being summoned by Mumbai police. The same has been rectified.