Hyd Uber driver dragged out of car, beaten, told to chant 'Jai Shree Ram'

Hyderabad: Uber driver Syed Lateef Uddin (37) was on his way from Shaikpet to Alkapur to pick up a passenger when 5-6 men on bikes started screaming at him and hitting the car doors. Initially, Lateef couldn't understand why they were screaming at him.

It was nearly 3 a.m and there was nobody on the road. Lateef tried to speed past them and for a few minutes, he felt like he had succeeded. But as he neared his pick-up destination, he lost his way. "The streets were too dark and the passenger cancelled my ride. But I suddenly saw the same men again. They had followed me. I tried to speed past them again but I couldn't," Lateef told NewsMeter.

Lateef had to take narrow roads that made it difficult for his car to move fast. He finally reached a dead end. Meanwhile, his perpetrators began throwing rocks at his car. Once the car reached the dead end, the men dragged Lateef out and started beating him. "They kept asking me to chant 'Jai Shree Ram'," Lateef said.

Lateef tried to outrun them but couldn't. Eventually, he hid in the bushes and dialled 100. "I begged for help. I was scared for my life," he recalled.

He first called 100 at around 3:30 a.m. Almost half an hour passed and no policemen came to his aid. "I called again and they assured me that the Narsingi police will come. But no one did," Lateef said.

The police came after nearly an hour. Meanwhile, Lateef's perpetrators had caused severe damage to his car. The car's window shields and glasses were completely shattered.

For nearly an hour, until the police came, Lateef hid in the bushes in complete darkness. "The police told us that the bike numbers are not visible in the CCTV footage since it was night," said Mateen, Lateef's brother.

An FIR has been registered at the Narsingi police station and an investigation is ongoing.