Uber bans Mumbai woman accused of racism from using app

Uber has banned a Mumbai womanaccused of racism and physical assault by a co-passenger from using their app. The cab company has responded to the allegations by the victim, Ushnota Paul, saying that it is against their "community guidelines."

"It is deeply upsetting and against our community guidelines. The co-rider in question cannot access the app. We’ve reached out to authorities to offer info that could be helpful in their proceedings," Uber said on Tuesday as quoted by news agency ANI.

Paul, on Monday, described the "worst experience" with her Uber pool ride when a co-passenger attacked her and passed racist comments after she tried to intervene when the woman started having an argument with the driver.

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Narrating her ordeal on Twitter, Paul in a series of tweets said that the woman called her "chinki", "chinki s**t" and told her to remove her "dirty things" from the seat.

Post the argument, Paul tried to click her co-passenger's picture, however, the latter immediately snatched the phone away and threatened to break it.

"I know she would have so I didn't try clicking anymore. Before she got down from the cab, she physically attacked me, grabbed me by my hair, tore off clumps of hair, scratched my face. I tried to defend myself with both hands trying to protect my face and I got huge scratches there too," she expressed.

Despite filing a complaint, Uber refused to give the accused woman's details on grounds of "customer privacy".

"The police officer called them (Uber care) in front of me and said there's a formal complaint against this woman and yet Uber didn't help. If she's your customer, so am I. Uber won't do anything when it comes to my safety. If they don't respect what the Mumbai Police are saying to them, I am a mere civilian and definitely I am not safe," she said.

The identity of the woman has still not been revealed by the cab company.