Bengaluru: Cabbie held for 'assaulting' woman passenger after ride mix-up

A cabbie is accused of assaulting a 48-year-old woman passenger and her son during a mix-up over a cab ride in southeastern Bengaluru's Bellandur on Wednesday. 

Vinita Agrawal, a resident of Prestige Summer Fields apartment complex, Bhoganahalli, booked an Uber cab ride at 11.05 am to take her son Sohan to Manipal Hospitals, Old Airport Road. 

Around the same time, a Maruti Swift cab pulled over outside the apartment complex. Agrawal and Sohan thought it was their cab and got into it. The driver started the ride and asked for the OTP. 

Agrawal realised the mix-up and asked him to stop the ride. After a brief argument with the driver, she and Sohan got out of the cab. While deboarding the cab, Agrawal slammed the door shut. 

The driver became angry and picked a fight with her. He then hit her in the face and also beat up Sohan when he tried to save his mother, a police officer who's part of the investigation said. 

Hearing Agrawal's screams for help, apartment residents rushed to her rescue but the cabbie drove off by then. 

Acting on a complaint filed by Agrawal, Bellandur police tracked down the cab driver, who has been identified as Basavaraju Ramappa, 25. 

He is a native of Shantigere village, Gajendragad taluk, Gadag district, and lives in Malleswaram. 

"Regardless of why the fight happened, the cab driver made a mistake by assaulting the woman," the officer said. 

Baavaraju was booked for wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing hurt and international insult with intent to breach of peace.