Early on Sunday morning, a woman in Bengaluru said she was threatened and verbally abused by a Namma Yatri auto driver. The incident took place around 4 am when she, along with two companions and a child, were returning home from a friend’s house.

Vanshita Agarwal wrote about X: “I had the most unsafe and scary car ride of my life @nammayatri. Your driver threatened us, called us ‘c******’ and ‘m********’ and almost came towards us as if he was going to hit us. SOS is of little use, they listened to our plea and just disconnected the call.”

The altercation began when the driver disputed the fare on the app, insisting that the amount was too low. When the women insisted on paying the app fare, the driver became enraged and allegedly cursed and insulted them.

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“He almost started cursing us and we got scared, so we walked to the main entrance of our building to call the security guard. He got out of the car and started screaming louder and louder. At that point we had to use the SOS function in the app and I called the police,” she wrote.

“He started demanding my phone and said ‘I want to talk, let me talk to him’. I didn’t give him my phone because it would be unsafe and we were terrified at that point. He started coming even closer and I firmly told him not to go through the gate or I would call my dad,” she added.

The woman then tagged the Bengaluru City Police and the Traffic Police on social media, asking for advice on what to do if the SOS feature does not provide help.

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“What do you do in situations like this? The SOS on the app doesn’t work and even the 112 managers clearly DON’T CARE. We were calling them in a panic and they haven’t even contacted us to ask if we’re safe!” she posted.

“We couldn’t record him because we were very afraid that he would do something in response. But while he was hurling the bad words at us, I was able to make a two-second clip of his face. I want this man to face the consequences of what he did to us today,” Agarwal further said.

Ride-hailing app Namma Yatri responded to the thread saying, “Hi Vanshita, We are sorry to hear about the experience you had. At Namma Yatri, we take safety concerns very seriously. Thank you for sharing the details. Please give us some time to check this and get back to you.”

The posts also caught the attention of Alok Kumar, ADGP for Training, Traffic and Road Safety, who wrote: “File a complaint at the nearest police station. Action will be taken based on the facts of the incident. If there is any issue, please let us know. @BlrCityPolice.”

Several social media users also reacted to the post, writing: “This is scary” and “I hope you are safe.”

Bengaluru has been facing growing problems with rogue drivers overcharging and abusing passengers. In a contrasting incident, however, an Uber driver in Bengaluru made headlines after he helped Sindhu Gangadharan, vice chairman of NASSCOM, reach the airport on time after her car broke down, and was praised for it.