New Delhi: A day after booking three men for breach of peace in connection with the road rage incident on July 31 in which a girl was seen slapping a cab driver, Lucknow police on Tuesday registered a case against the woman too. The incident, which has left the entire nation surprised, brought the Lucknow police under heavy criticism on social media after it booked the driver and took it into custody. The girl, who slapped the cab driver at least 20 times, had claimed that he was driving the vehicle at a very high speed and she had narrowly skipped being run over by the car.
Here’s everything we know about the woman who was seen mercilessly slapping the cabbie on the busy Awadh Street in the Uttar Pradesh capital city.
The girl in the clip has been identified as Priyadarshini.
She is a resident of Kesari Kheda in Krishna Nagar.
She has been booked by the police under charges of committing or attempting to commit robbery, causing hurt and loss.
In his complaint, the driver, identified as Shahadat alleged that the woman slapped her for none of his fault in full public view, breaking his phone and catching him by collar. He also alleged that she looted Rs 600 which he had put in the dashboard of the car.
In the video, the bespectacled woman, dressed in a white t-shirt and jeans and sports shoes, was seen crossing a street at a zebra crossing at Awadh Crossing and stopped in front of a cab. She proceeds to open the cab driver`s door and drags him out and starts slapping and hitting him pulling him by the collar. The driver can be seen requesting bystanders to call policewomen to the scene. “Aaplog mahila police bulaye, ” he is heard saying in the video.
The woman continues assaulting him repeatedly and at one point is seen flinging the phone of the cabbie, which had fallen on the ground. A bystander who attempts to intervene also gets a slap from the woman.
In between the video also shows a traffic policeman intervening and separating the woman from the cabbie and escorting them to the side of the road but after a short while the woman again corners the man and starts hitting him.
Meanwhile, the cab driver identified as Sadat Ali Siddiqui said that after the incident police took both him and the woman to the police station but the police filed a case against him based on her complaint. “Police did not even take my complaint and kept me inside lockup for 24 hours,” he added.
The cab driver’s lawyer said that when his client’s brother came to know about the incident, he along with some friends arrived at the police station and managed to get his brother released on a personal bond. “The police made them sit in the police station forcibly and also challaned the driver,” the lawyer said.
Taking action on the complaint a case was registered against the woman in Krishna Nagar police station,” the lawyer said adding that they have also asked the police to take action taken against cops who did nothing at the time of the incident and registered a case against the cab driver.
On Twitter, the video generated outrage with users expressing their ire.One Twitter user posted: “First of all how can she cross the road when vehicles are moving? Isn’t that her fault and how can the police allow this ? And pls support students too #ArrestLucknowGirl”
Another microblogger said: “See was trying to suiC/ide…she came in front of moving traffic.. if cab driver wouldn’t control he was gone for killing chanrges.. girl should be given tough lesson.”
A few people also asked that the girl be shown no leniency because of her gender. One person tweeted: “Hope there is no leniency shown because of gender. This was an unwarranted, unprovoked act. Kudos to the guy for showing restraint. That must have been very hard.”
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