The cab-hailing firm has now said that it is in a process to revise and review its vehicle registration policy for better safety of passengers
Ola's vehicle registration policy helped criminals — including a cabbie — easily kidnap a Delhi doctor, who was rescued on Wednesday after 13 days in captivity, the police said.
Dr Srikant Goud was abducted on July 6 after he took an Ola cab to his home in South Delhi's Gautam Nagar. But instead, the driver drove to an eastern part of Delhi where more people joined to kidnap the doctor.
The accused had earlier been associated with Ola as drivers, and thus knew that it takes two to three days to complete the registration process of an Ola vehicle, but the driver gets the permit to operate during this period, the police said on Thursday. "The doctor, who was rescued after an encounter between the police and the criminals near Uttar Pradesh's Meerut, was kidnapped during this period as all the submitted documents were forged," a police officer said. Gaud was the first passenger to use the cab.
Various documents submitted to Ola were verified to identify the driver. A number of executives, vendors of Ola and drivers were questioned. "More than hundred vehicles similar to the suspected one were screened. Several drivers were interrogated and their profiles analysed," Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of police, eastern range, said. "The kidnappers used the slight gap in the verification process to execute the abduction so that their information could not be leaked to the police by Ola. They were very certain that Ola would pay a ransom to save its reputation. And the company has the paying capacity as well."
The cab-hailing firm has now said that it is in a process to revise and review its vehicle registration policy for better safety of passengers. Joy Bandekar, corporate president, Ola, said, "I agree that certain gaps in our procedure were used against us and in executing the crime, making it a mammoth task for police to investigate. We are in the process of reviewing our current procedures and make our policy stringent for no such intrusions."
The kidnappers initially demanded a ransom of Rs 5 crore from Ola to release the doctor. The cab-hailing firm reported the matter to the police on July 7. The kidnappers then asked for the ransom from Metro Hospital in East Delhi's Preet Vihar, where Gaud works.
Gaud had gone for a party with his friends who dropped him at Preet Vihar Metro station around 11 pm. He had booked the cab when he missed the last Metro, the police said.
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