Bengaluru man receives 'death threats' for booking a cab; here's why

While the digital world has made life highly easy for most of us, for some it still is a bane. The arrival of the digital era gave travellers a huge relief in terms of navigation and travelling time. Travelling to an unknown area with long distances? Book a bike or a cab and reach there in absolutely less time and money. However, on the dark side of this coin exist the auto and cab drivers who don't work with travel apps and have to earn a living solely on their own.

A case mirroring this tension recently occurred in Bengaluru when a local commuter found himself receiving 'death threats' from aggressive auto drivers, all because he opted to travel by booking a bike cab through a ride-hailing app.
In a Reddit post going viral on social media, the individual shared the harrowing details of the incident.

The incident
After exiting a metro station, the man intended to hire a bike through a mobile application. However, even before he could complete the process a nearby auto driver took issue with his choice. In a confrontational tone, he said to the man, "Don't book that! I'll drop you; come with me!" But the man, unwilling to engage, disregarded the driver and finalised his booking.

When the bike arrived moments later, the man got on it. But suddenly, a group of auto drivers began to shout threatening remarks at him, expressing their disappointment and anger that the man chose to travel by bike instead of their auto. He was attacked with phrases such as, "You're going with him? I'll deal with you!" However, the man made a rude gesture and went on with his journey.

Buy mere seconds later, the same auto driver who had first confronted him overtook the bike, forced it to a halt and began issuing direct threats. He claimed that he had been merely "teasing" the bike rider and moved on to accuse the passenger of overreacting. Within some time, almost seven to eight auto drivers and a couple of men on scooters encircled him and began threatening him with phrases including, "We'll chop your hand off!", "If we choose to, we can ruin your life!", "You won't be able to walk freely in this city again!", "Even if you know the deputy commissioner or superintendent of police, it won't matter-we're locals, and we'll unleash chaos!"

A call for help
Fearing for his safety, the man sought help from the police and dialled the emergency helpline 112. However, when the officers followed up, they accused the man of making an inappropriate hand gesture rather than acknowledging the aggressiveness of the mob that threatened him. In fact, one of the officers was familiar with the mob and asked them to let the man go. He also ended the conversation with a comment: "Hit him and send him off."