By Sharmita Kar
New Delhi: A senior lawyer has alleged that the driver of a taxi in Delhi, booked through Ola Cabs, subjected him to Islamophobic remarks and criminal intimidation due to his Muslim faith. While the company said it has suspended the driver from the platform, it has not yet responded to any of the specific queries the complainant raised about the company’s passenger safety policies, whether the driver’s suspension was temporary or permanent, and the safeguards in place to prevent communal targeting and intimidation of passengers.
The incident took place on March 15, 2026. Saif Mahmood, an advocate in the Supreme Court, said he had booked a taxi via Ola at 5:22 pm to travel from south Delhi’s Greater Kailash area to the Max Mueller Bhavan in central Delhi.
While booking, he said, the driver’s name initially appeared as ‘Shri Ram’ on the app. However, when he later went to check his ride history, that name had disappeared.
“Shortly after the ride commenced, the driver began chatting with me. He told me he was from Kanpur and boasted about how he knows to treat people with respect, unlike the ‘Jats’ in Delhi. He then said, ‘Lekin koi ulti baat kare to ilaaj to karna padta hai (But if someone speaks out of line, then they have to be dealt with),” Mahmood told The Wire, adding that the driver claimed to be a “Sanatani”.
What followed, he said, was a series of criminal acts narrated by the driver, claimed as acts of justice.
“He started proudly narrating an incident in which he claimed to have brutally beaten up a Muslim passenger because they were eating non‑vegetarian food in his vehicle,” he said.
The driver only described this passenger as “Ansari-wansari”, Mahmood said.
“The driver went on to boast that while travelling from Delhi towards Moradabad, he stopped at a Vaishno dhaba and beat up the passenger and that others present at the dhaba also joined him to beat up the passenger and break his legs.
“He alleged that he had threatened this passenger against doing so and told them ‘Unko tukdo tukdo me kaat dunga (I would cut them up in pieces)’,” Mahmood recalled, noting how the driver recounted the entire episode with striking pride, glorifying the violence at every step.
The driver did not stop at this, Mahmood said, and that he then started narrating another incident.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.