A distressing incident involving a female passenger being sexually assaulted by a Rapido auto driver in Bengaluru has recently been shared on social media. Ankur Bagchi, a user on X (formerly Twitter), recounted the incident that occurred on Wednesday. According to Bagchi, his friend was not only subjected to inappropriate touching by the Rapido driver but was also forcibly thrown out of the moving vehicle when she resisted. Bagchi accused the company of enabling sexual predators and urged others to refrain from using the aggregator service.
On Thursday, Bagchi tweeted, “Rapido enables sexual predators. Do not use Rapido. One of my friends got sexually assaulted last night by a @rapidobikeapp auto driver. She was touched inappropriately and when she pushed back, she was thrown out of a moving auto.”
Initially, despite his friend filing a complaint with Rapido, the company only offered apologies without providing any information about the auto-rickshaw driver. Bagchi wrote, “We’re working on sorting this out, but in the meantime she needs medical care.” He also urged people to stay safe and advised their female friends and family members not to use Rapido.
Bagchi’s post quickly gained attention on social media and even attracted a response from the Bengaluru City Police, who requested more details about the incident. “Please provide specific area details of the incident and your contact number via DM,” the police tweeted.
In another post, Bagchi revealed that a First Information Report (FIR) was filed against the driver. He also commended Rapido for their assistance in addressing the issue. Rapido Cares responded to Bagchi’s tweet, stating, “@JustAnkurBagchi As discussed with the customer, Rapido is getting the captain to the HAL police station at 4:30 pm to proceed legally on this.”
The company later confirmed that the captain had been permanently terminated and banned from their platform. They apologized for the captain’s unethical behavior and assured Bagchi that his complaint had been acknowledged and acted upon.
