Thiruvananthapuram

30°C

Haze

Last Updated Wednesday November 18 2020 07:19 PM IST

Attack on Uber driver: The other side of the story

Text Size

Recipient's Mail:*

( For more than one recipient, type addresses seperated by comma )

Your Name:*

Your E-mail ID:*

Your Comment:

uber-driver-women

It hasn't been a week since a video of three women manhandling an Uber taxi driver in Kochi started circulating on the Internet. The video went viral on YouTube and took social media spaces by storm.

Hashtag crusaders, who were irked by the #Avalkoppam campaign in support of the attacked actress, immediately seized the opportunity and initiated an ambidextrous #Avanoppam movement on Facebook and Twitter for Kochi’s ‘victim of misandry’ – driver Shafeeque.

The video unwittingly instigated discussions on gender inequality and human rights. To top it off, some unscrupulous websites came up with stories that showed the ‘lady-goons’ in a bad light. Their personal lives were scrutinized, weighed up and looked down upon.

Well, Onmanorama caught up with one among the women trio, Angel Mary. Angel’s account says that the Uber driver’s police complaint and media reports completely distort the situation.

So, we’ll go through what we were told, one by one. And then you can decide which side you think seems more legitimate. Obviously, it takes two to tango, and we assume that there's a kernel of truth on both sides.

Attack on Uber driver: The other side of the story "The videos showed our self-defense and retaliation," says Angel Mary.

'Because Uber is safe'

Angel Mary has long been living alone with her 12-year-old son in Kochi as her husband works in the middle-east. A marketing professional at an advertising agency, Angel occasionally plays minor characters in TV serials. Her son suffers from a serious case of growth deceleration as he met with an accident when he was four years old and is in need of an urgent surgery.

On that day when everything turned topsy-turvy, Angel had gone to meet her cousin Clara Shibin, who had been on a sojourn in Kochi as part of her treatment for a brain tumor at Medical Trust Hospital. Together, the cousins went to meet their mutual friend Sheeja Afzal at her house at Maradu here.

“After the meet-up, I had to go to Thrippoonithura for a shoot-schedule and Clara said she'd accompany me. Sheeja said she'd book a cab for us and we were relieved. After all, there isn't a safer mode of transport for women to travel around the city. None of us knew about the rider-pooling system that was newly introduced in Kochi,” Angel remembers.

“When the cab arrived, we saw another man seated in the back. So we asked the driver who he was. Visibly annoyed with our query, he asked us with a subtle scorn: “You want an Uber cab but don’t know what pooling is?”

“As we hadn’t heard of the practice, we asked him if the man would get down anywhere close-by and whether it was his previous customer. When the driver remained silent with an expression of disdain, we requested the male passenger to kindly shift to the front so that we, the two women, could occupy the back seat. Hearing this, the driver passed an obscene comment to the man: ‘There are some whores here. They just want to waste our time.’

“I was offended by his words and his rude, arrogant attitude right from the beginning. I closed the cab's door loudly and headed to a security guard, who stood nearby, to raise a complaint. The driver rushed to us and threatened us saying he was a member of the CITU. He said the policemen in all neighboring stations were 'his men' and that he'd screw us up if I complaint against him.”

Attack on Uber driver: The other side of the story Uber driver Shafeeque at the hospital with minor injuries on head.

Undaunted by his threats, Angel went on to explain everything to the security guard, raising the driver’s hackles. Angel says Shafeeque grabbed her hands and interrupted the conversation. When Clara attempted to push him off from Angel, he held her by the throat and knocked her down. She fell to her knees and her head hit the tar road. 

At this point of time, Angel got angry as a head-injury could worsen Clara's medical condition. As she helped Clara stand on her feet, Shafeeque was mouthing profanities at them.

Hearing the commotion on the street, Sheeja came out of her house and got herself involved in the fight when she realized that her friends were the ones involved in the brawl. Sheeja shouted at the driver and asked him to stop foul-mouthing. 

Disregarding her, Shafeeque bored down on Angel and pushed her away, walloping her chin. Angel slapped him back and grabbed his collar. When Angel tried to videotape Shafeeque manhandling Sheeja, he broke her phone.

"The visuals that were circulated on social media begin from this point. The videos showed our self-defense and retaliation. And yes, it yielded minor scratches on Shafeeque’s head," she says.

When the police came... 

A few cops from Maradu police station arrived at the spot in no time and without much queries, arrested the three of them, she recounts. “We were so relieved when we saw the policemen coming. I was getting ready to explain the things to them. But before I could say anything, they arrested us and took us to the police aid post,” Angel says.

“Clara started showing symptoms of seizures, which is very alarming for her condition. She fainted in my arms and I kept pleading to the policemen to take her to the hospital. They said they have to wait for the arrival of a lady officer to take us to the hospital.”

At the police station, the trio was made to wait a long time for the routine medical check-up. Clara's condition worsened and the hospital staff was pretty puzzled when the policemen asked them not to admit her.

“I heard a policeman asking the duty-doctor to prepare a report without mentioning any of the injuries we had. The doctor refused to do so and demanded a quick admission. By that time, Clara's husband had arrived there and the police treated him with contempt. They told him that they knew how to lock “such woman” behind bars. Later, we came to know that the driver had filed a complaint against us long before we thought about it,” says Angel. 

Attack on Uber driver: The other side of the story Shinoj, the third passenger who was already there in the cab.

Injuries: physical and emotional 

The incident has left the three women with physical and emotional injuries that would take some time to heal. Angel sprained her ribs and Clara ruptured her uterus. The brain tumor patient has been referred to Lakeshore Hospital owing to heavy uterine bleeding.

Angel, who has been generally out of sorts ever since the incident, is crestfallen by the witch-hunting on social media and online websites that claimed that they were in an inebriated state. Some jobless photoshop geniuses even morphed their pictures and circulated it online. 

Attack on Uber driver: The other side of the story An eye witness's comment on a Facebook post seeking the truth behind viral video.

Making it worse, Angel's husband has demanded a divorce from her.  “I don't know what pleasure society gets from ruining our lives. I just feel so helpless. I have my son's surgery coming up. Now, I myself is bedridden without any support. I don't blame my husband. The hundreds of fabricated tales reaching his ears would be louder than my feeble voice,” Angel breaks into tears.

The video of ‘three drunk women assaulting a taxi driver’ is still being viewed, shared and liked on social media platforms. It may be too late to do damage control, but it’s never too late to know the other side of the story. Because half the truth is often a whole lie.

Email ID:

User Name:

User Name:

News Letter News Alert
News Letter News Alert