Mumbai: Actor lodges police complaint against Uber driver

A police complaint has been lodged by a theatre artist against the driver of Uber, an app-based cab service, who allegedly threatened to kill him and snatched his mobile phone after he booked a ride with him in the city, police said on Friday. 

The alleged incident occurred on Wednesday night, when Marathi theatre actor Pramod Shinde (44) booked an Uber cab to travel from suburban Ghatkopar to his house in Borivali, along with his 11-year-old child and two persons from his drama team, an official said. 

A quarrel took place between the actor and the cab driver, after he asked the former to alight the vehicle before reaching the destination, he said. When Shinde urged him to drop him off outside his house, as he was travelling with a sleeping child and had a lot of bags, the man drove the cab to Magathane bridge and allegedly threatened to drive the vehicle off the bridge to kill the passengers and himself, the official said. 

Speaking to PTI, Shinde said, “We were scared of the driver’s behaviour. We gave him whatever money we had and alighted the vehicle after begging for our life. Later, when I clicked picture of the cab’s number plate, the driver returned and forced me to delete the photograph and snatched my mobile phone, before fleeing.” The actor then lodged a complaint at Kasturba Marg police station on Thursday and later contacted the cab company, which identified the driver as Rakesh Yadav, a resident of Virar, it was stated. 

When contacted, Uber spokesperson said, “What’s been described is unfortunate and something no one should ever go through. We have immediately removed the driver’s access to the Uber app while we investigate further. We stand ready to extend our support to the law enforcement authorities as required.”