Uber assures assistance to Mumbai assault victim

New Delhi: A day after a Mumbai-based woman alleged that she was physically assaulted by a co-passenger, Uber India Support on Tuesday assured to offer information that could be helpful in the concerned matter.

"It is deeply upsetting and against our community guidelines. The co-rider in question cannot access the app. We have reached out to authorities to offer info that could be helpful in their proceedings," Uber said in a statement.

A police complaint was registered after a Mumbai-based woman journalist claimed that she was assaulted and verbally abused by a female co-passenger on Monday.

The victim, Ushnota Paul, alleged that her fellow passenger was firm on being dropped first as she had paid more for her ride on Uber pool. However, the latter verbally abused Ushnota when she intervened.

Narrating her ordeal on Twitter, Paul in a series of tweets said "Hi @Uber_Support, I had the worst experience today morning. Was Uber pooling with a woman who was hostile from the very start. She started yelling at the driver saying she's paying the "most" and still she's getting dropped last. When I tried to intervene I was verbally abused".

Hi @Uber_Support , I had the worst experience today morning. Was Uber pooling with a woman who was hostile from the very start. She started yelling at the driver saying she’s paying the “most” & still she’s getting dropped last. When I tried to intervene I was verbally abused. pic.twitter.com/4uHLUii3X7

— Ushnota Paul (@journojuno) June 25, 2018

Further expressing her torment, Paul stated that reasoning with her co-passenger was futile. "She called me all sorts of names and tried to provoke me when I went completely quiet. Was reading something on my mobile and refused to give a reaction even though she went on her abusive rant calling me the worst abuses that I'm too ashamed to mention."

Paul's co-passenger also banged the hand rest on her bag kept between them, and demanded Paul to remove her "dirty things".

Then she banged the hand rest on my bag kept b/w us & on my hand. And asked me to remove my “dirty things” from her. I still didn’t react. Picked the bag and put it beside the driver’s seat. I guess that must have pushed her to the edge.

— Ushnota Paul (@journojuno) June 25, 2018

Post the argument, Paul tried to click her co-passenger's picture, however, the latter immediately snatched the phone away and threatened to break it.

Despite filing a complaint, Uber refused to give the accused woman's details on grounds of "customer privacy".

"I have been physically and verbally assaulted in broad daylight by a complete stranger. The whole back seat of @Uber is full of clumps of my hair, I have an injury on my face and hands and I'm definitely psychologically scarred. I take Uber twice every day and yet I know now that I'm not safe," she said in her final tweet.