Dubai taxi driver locks up women inside his car

Dubai - The driver claimed he had a prior agreement with the women: they would pay him Dh20 without getting a receipt.

A taxi driver allegedly locked up two women inside his car after they failed to pay him the taxi fare, the Court of First Instance was told.

As per the public prosecution records, the 27-year-old Indian driver deprived the two women of their freedom on May 27 after centrally locking his car. He denied the charge in court.

The incident was reported at Al Barsha police station.

A Sri Lankan security guard said he was on shift at around 4:30am at a hotel when the receptionist informed him about a problem between a woman and a taxi driver.

"There were two women and one of them was inside a taxi. I went to the driver and found he had automatically locked the car while the woman in the back seat was trying to get out but in vain," the 25-year-old guard told the prosecutor.

The guard added the driver claimed to him the women did not pay him the taxi fare.

"He would not let the woman out until I told him I would call the police. The driver then told me the two women did not pay him Dh20 they owed him."

But one of the women told the guard the money was not the problem. "She said he drove them for a short distance without starting the meter. She then tried to click his picture in front of me with her mobile phone but he pretended he would slap her to scare her."

The guard wrote down the cab's plate number and gave it to one of the complainants.

The guard said the driver claimed he had a prior agreement with the women: they would pay him Dh20 without getting a receipt.

Both women claimed during the investigation that the driver asked them to pay Dh25 after driving them for a short distance without even starting the meter.

When they argued with him he locked them inside his car and they felt scared.

A statement of the trips done by the driver at that night included one at 4:27am from an apartment hotel to a pharmacy in the Marina and which lasted for about 7 minutes at a cost of Dh12.

The next hearing is scheduled for January 10.

mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai