Three taxi drivers have been arrested and two police officers suspended after a video of a Mumbai based tourist talking about the way she was treated by them in Munnar went viral.
A tourist from Mumbai had to cancel her Munnar trip midway after she was allegedly harassed by taxi drivers. Sharing her ordeal in a video online, Janhvi, who is an assistant professor, revealed that the police or the Kerala Tourism Department helped her.
Posting a three-minute-long video, Janhvi also shared evidence while she narrated her ordeal. As the video starts, she begins by appreciating Kerala’s beauty, also adding that she met some nice people in Kochi and Alleppey.
“This trip started with us going to Kochi, then to Alleppey. The people over there were extremely
nice, very kind, very welcoming and then I decided to go to Munnar. A decision that has changed the way that I will always remember this trip,” she said.
When she decided to go to Munnar, she was told by her host that there were no Ola or Uber pickups. “Not available. Not allowed,” she clarified. Asking about the reason, Janhvi was told it was because of the union. She was however, already booked the cab.
“He (host) basically warned us that if we still want to go, we have to call him (driver) to a different location and then we have to meet him there and make sure that nobody notices us,” she added.
The cab driver came, and as soon as they started loading their luggage in the cab, a group of five to six people came.
“Apparently, they had been following us. They started threatening our cab driver, telling him that he couldn’t take us. Nobody asked us. We obviously didn’t understand the language, but we understood the aggression in it and started feeling extremely unsafe,” she added.
Janhvi dialed the police, but they were of no help.
She further mentioned that the police also asked them to hire a local taxi. “Everybody kept throwing the same sentence to us. You’re not allowed. You’re not allowed to decide who you travel with. You’re not allowed to feel safe. You’re not allowed to exercise your constitutional rights,” she added.
“I loved Kerala. I loved how beautiful it was. I loved how amazing the people of Kerala were. But I don’t think that I’ll be able to come back to a place where I’m not allowed to feel safe,” she said towards the end of the video.
The Munnar police registered a suo motu case under Sections 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 135(2) (criminal intimidation), and 3(5) (common intention) of BNS after the video went viral. The video has now been removed from Janvi’s social media account.
Police identified Vinayakan and Vijayakumar from the video shared by Janhvi.
Two officers – assistant sub-inspector (SI) Saju Paulose and Grade SI George Kurian of the Munnar police station – were suspended for failing to provide help to the tourist, police said.
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