A woman commuter from Delhi on Wednesday claimed that her Uber driver physically assaulted her and the ‘safety’ feature on the app failed to take prompt action during the incident.
Bharati Chaturvedi, the founder of an NGO that works on climate action, said she had booked the taxi to take her to a doctor’s clinic in south Delhi’s Sarvodaya Enclave. In a post on X, she said while getting close to the clinic, the driver’s pinned location stopped at a spot that was not the final destination and she started giving him directions to reach the area. “At first, he agreed to drop me but as he drove ahead, he became irritable and started misbehaving,” she said.
When she asked the driver to take a U-turn to reach the destination, he behaved as if he was unable to understand the direction, ignored it and continued to drive further at high speed, she told The Hindu.
“I told him to stop the vehicle immediately but instead of stopping, he refused, increased his speed further, and continued driving away from the intended path. When I tried opening the car door to compel the driver to slow down, he turned around, grabbed my arm, and twisted it violently, using considerable force,” Ms. Chaturvedi said.
‘Will probe matter later’
Following this, Ms. Chaturvedi tried accessing the safety features available on Uber. “First, an AI bot informed me that I should dial another number for help. After that, I got a call from Uber where I was informed that they would not be able to help me right then but would investigate the matter,” she said.
Uber later informed the complainant that it had barred the driver from accessing the app.
‘Calls to helpline unanswered’
With no constructive help from the platform, Ms. Bharti dialled the police helpline number 100 twice. However, it did not get her any assistance either, she said.
In a letter to Commissioner of Police Satish Golcha, Ms. Chaturvedi wrote, “I called the helpline multiple times. The first time when I called – at 1. 55 p.m. – I was informed the number was “not available”. When I called once more at 1.57 p.m., no one answered at all.”
In addition, a police patrol van had passed by her taxi during the incident but despite her attempts at trying to flag it down, the van did not intervene, she told The Hindu.
No formal police complaints have been made in the matter yet.
Published – November 27, 2025 01:02 am IST
