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Two passengers shot and killed an Uber driver in Delhi. It happened in the Najafgarh area on the outskirts of the city. The incident took place on Wednesday evening but came to light today.
Local reports quoting police identified the driver as Kuldeep. Police have detained two teens who had booked the cab. They are suspected to have got into an argument with the driver and shot him in an ensuing scuffle.
Uber has confirmed the incident. “Our thoughts are with the family of our driver-partner, the victim of this mindless violence. We have pro-actively shared details with the police to assist them with their investigation,” Gagan Bhatia, general manager of Uber in Delhi, told Tech in Asia. The company did not wish to share more information about the incident as the matter is under investigation.
This is the second criminal incident to hit Uber in Delhi. In December 2014, a female passenger was raped by an Uber driver, who later was found to be a convicted rapist. Uber was banned in several cities following that incident.
An Uber driver confirmed to Tech in Asia that the company does not insure them for such incidents. “Unruly passengers often misbehave with us drivers. But we try to keep quiet because after the rape incident, a single complaint from a passenger gets us banned from the system,” he told my colleague Harsimran Julka in Delhi. The driver didn’t want to be named for fear of being victimized.
“Unruly passengers include even the high and mighty of Delhi,” he added.”We have our family livelihoods to take care of.”
This report will be updated when more details are available.
Editing by Michael Tegos and Harsimran Julka
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