Bengaluru bike-taxi rider changes route and molests woman | Bengaluru News

BENGALURU: A Rapido bike-taxi captain in his 20s allegedly sexually harassed 28-year-old woman recently.
Bina (name changed), a resident of Radha Reddy Layout on Sarjapur Road and store supervisor in a hotel, in her complaint to Bellandur police, stated that the incident happened between 11.40pm and 12am on July 5.
Bina booked a bike-taxi at 11.20pm to have dinner with her husband, who also works in the same hotel. Biswajit Nath picked her up from her residence at 11.40pm. But on his way, he changed the route. “He claimed that due to waterlogging, he’s taking alternative roads. Meanwhile, I got a call from my friend, and I spoke to her in Bengali. Biswajit asked me if I was Bengali and he started conversing with me in the language. He took me to an isolated place and stopped the bike. When I questioned him, he started touching me inappropriately and asked me to cooperate with him,” she said. Bina tried to escape, but he ran behind her and slapped her. “He snatched my mobile phone and cash too. I pleaded with him to leave me unharmed. After almost 30 minutes, he realised that I won’t give up. I requested him to drop me at the location or home as I was not aware of which place it was, and there were hardly any people in the area,” she said.
He took her on his bike till RMZ Ecoworld, returned her phone, and left with Rs 800. “I could not note down his bike number. My husband came and picked me up. Rapido responded to my complaint, stating they would terminate Biswajit. They gave me with his name and mobile number. I filed a complaint,” Bina said.
Police traced Biswajit who claimed that he took alternative roads because of waterlogging on the main road and the passenger misunderstood him. According to him, she wanted to be dropped a few metres away from the location and refused to pay the fare. So he forcibly took money from her and left. “We are verifying,” an officer said.