Two women verbally abused by auto driver in Bengaluru

On Sunday, two women excise officials hailed an auto at around 3 pm, and were heading from Shivajinagar to Cunningham Road in Bengaluru to go home.  Unfortunately they were publically harassed by the driver near Sigma Mall, Cunningham Road. The irony of the situation is that the Bangalore city police on Saturday claimed to have upgraded the security in the city by inducting 222 hi-tech patrol vehicles and launching an SOS app and this incident occured on the very next day of that launch.

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According to the report the autorickshaw driver started verbally abusing and harassing the two women when they asked the man to stop near a particular shop. One passer-by tried to help the women by alerting the police control room but got no luck there. Interestingly, the hi-tech patrol vehicles also were nowhere to be seen. Though the nearby traffic police did not bother to reach the spot urgently but a Cheetah patrolling bike appeared there after 20 minutes. When Traffic policemen reached the spot, instead of assisting the women they asked them to approach the jurisdictional police station.

The verbal altercation left the women feeling embarrassed and humiliated, but one of them - Smitha, a resident of Rammurthynagar, later visited the High Grounds police and filed a complaint against the rogue autorickshaw driver who was identified as Mohammed Azim. City Police Commissioner N.S. Megharikh, who learnt about the incident, has asked his men to take strict action.

Also read: A day out with women conductors in Bengaluru

The cases of women harassment and abuse in Bengaluru just seem to keep piling up.

Feature Image Credit: theconversation.com