BENGALURU: A 25-year-old business analyst of a private company has filed a complaint of sexual harassment against a cab driver. The victim stated that she was harassed by the driver on Kendriya Sadan Road in Koramangala 1st Block in Madiwala police station limits.
But the cab driver claimed that he objected to the woman and her three friends smoking inside his car, following which she filed a false complaint against him. Madiwala police registered a complaint and counter-complaint by the woman and the driver, identified as H Ramanjaneya (34), of Sitaramapalya in Whitefield. The woman and her friends had booked the cab around 12.44 am from Indiranagar to BTM Layout 2nd Stage.
The incident happened between 1 am and 1.15 am last Thursday. In her complaint, the woman stated that her friends started fighting with the driver after he sexually harassed her. The driver called his friends to the spot and all of them assaulted two of her friends. The night-beat patrol saw them fighting and took both parties to the police station.
The cab driver said that two of the passengers tried to smoke inside the car, and he stopped them and they had beaten him up. “They were all drunk and wanted to smoke cigarettes. I did not allow them to smoke as it would cause problems for the next customer. They started abusing me after which I stopped the car and did not drive. An auto driver passing by started questioning them and asked them to behave properly. When they started abusing him, the auto driver attacked them and went away. I don’t know who the auto driver was. The woman has filed a false complaint against me. There were four of them. I have filed a counter-complaint against them,” Ramanjaneya told TNIE.
Based on the woman’s complaint, police registered a sexual harassment case along with other sections of the IPC against the driver. Based on the counter-complaint by the driver, police registered a case of causing hurt by dangerous weapons and other cases, under other sections of the IPC against the woman’s friends.
“The case is under investigation. No arrests have been made,” said an officer. Madiwala police are investigating.