Ola Back In Spotlight For The Wrong Reason: Drunk Drivers Gangrape And Kill Minor In Kolkata

In a horrifying incident, a 12-year-old girl was reportedly gang-raped and strangled by two men in an Ola cab in Kolkata on Wednesday. The accused have been identified as Shankar Shaw and Guddu Singh.

According to reports, the victim’s body was found near a canal. The accused have been arrested and according to police sources, the drivers confessed to picking up the girl from a footpath when they were drunk.

“She was kidnapped around three-thirty in the morning. She used to stay with us. We got to know that she is dead now,” Santi Rani Rai, victim’s sister, said.

According to Hindustan Times, Shankar Shaw and Guddu Singh told the police that they picked up the minor after they were drunk and were looking for some “merriment.” After killing her, Shaw and Singh threw her body into a canal below the Park Circus flyover.

A Kolkata police officer said, “Around 5 am, we received information that a girl was picked up in a car. From the traffic control room the number of the car was established.” The case has been registered in Watgunge Police station.

Meanwhile, Ola has issued a statement, where it assured co-operation with the police with regard to the investigation.

“We are saddened by the reports of the alleged misbehaviour of a driver in Kolkata. On preliminary identification of the cab details shared by authorities, we have suspended the account associated with this cab with immediate effect. As per our records, this incident has not occurred while on the Ola platform. We will work with the authorities to share any information that will help support their investigation.”

This is not the first time that drivers associated with cab aggregators have come under fire for sexually offensive behaviour. In February 2015, an Ola driver was accused of teasing a woman passenger in Jaipur. The incident was reported by a 22-year-old Colombian hotel management student.

Uber has been under the scanner since Uber driver Shiv Kumar Yadav raped a woman executive  in Delhi on December 5, 2014. According to the police, the woman had dozed off on the back seat of the car, and she later woke up to find that the car had stopped at a secluded spot. When she tried to raise an alarm, the driver is said to have assaulted and raped her.

Uber was banned in India post this incident.