A group of men who are believed to have posed as metered taxi drivers allegedly beat up a Taxify driver in full view of the passenger he was picking up.
The “brutality” of the incident left Ingrid Kok shaken. She said that while it was the first time someone had been beaten up in front of her, she had been witnessing threats against Taxify drivers for almost two months.
According to Kok, she and her colleagues had knocked off from a late shift on Friday last week when they called Taxify to take them home. She said she had noticed in the past that some men tended to loiter at the entrances of Cresta Mall, using different vehicles and throwing people out of their requested vehicles, allegedly forcing them to accept transport at higher prices.
On this day, Kok said, five unidentified men threatened them and forcefully removed them from the vehicle.
She said they took the driver’s cellphone, beat him up and told him to leave before they “finish him up”.
Kok said the people she was travelling with fled, but she remained and immediately called the police, who arrived while the men were still there.
She said the police told her that they couldn’t act unless the victim filed a report.
“I will definitely be willing to testify if he opens a case. I just want justice for this man,” she told The Star.
The police, however, said no report had been filed with them. Marilin Noorem, a Taxify spokesperson, told The Star they were well aware of the incident, and that the driver had left them a comment via their online application.
She said they contacted him to offer assistance, but he had declined.
According to Noorem, there had been several incidents of the same nature. Fortunately, she said, only a few had been serious.
“As we have stated before, this kind of violence is absolutely unacceptable and we are doing everything we can to offer local support to our drivers and work together with police when needed.
“We do our best to encourage the authorities to take action,” she said.
Attempts by The Star to contact the driver proved unsuccessful.