The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) city chief Mangal Prabhat Lodha on Saturday felicitated an Uber driver who took a passenger to the police station after overhearing him talk about the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests last week.
Mr. Lodha also gave Rohit Gaur the “alert citizen award” for taking Bappadittya Sarkar, a 23-year-old poet from Jaipur, to the police on February 5, after he heard the latter talk about some anti-CAA protests.
Mr. Sarkar, who was in the city to participate in the Mumbai Bagh protest, told the police he was merely talking to a friend from new Delhi about people’s general discomfort with such protests as against ‘anti-national’ activities Mr. Gaur had suspected him of.
Mr. Lodha told The Hindu he was thankful to the driver for being socially responsible and wanted to felicitate him on behalf of the citizens of the financial capital. According to the BJP leader, Uber should have felicitated the driver instead of putting him off duty.
“I had a long chat with the policemen who told me Mr. Gaur even recorded the suspicious conversation of the passenger during the journey. Whether the police found anything suspicious is a different thing, but what is important is that the driver was aware of his social responsibility. The company had thrown him out of work for 72 hours, and I just wanted to encourage him for supporting the police,” Mr. Lodha said. He said Mumbai needed alert drivers like Mr. Gaur, and he would continue to look after alert citizens in the future.
As per the statement given by Mr. Sarkar at the Santa Cruz police station, he had hired a driver between Juhu and Kurla at 10.30pm on February 5. During the journey, he spoke to a friend about people’s discomfort with ‘Laal Salaam’ slogan at the Shaheen Bagh protest.
Mr. Gaur, however, told the police the passenger was plotting ‘anti-national’ activities in the cab. On overhearing the conversation, the driver stopped the cab and told Mr. Sarkar he wanted to withdraw money from ATM but later came back with policemen who took both of them to the police station.
