Police hunt for GrabCar molester

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have started investigating a case where a female GrabCar driver was molested by her passenger in Taman Bandaraya near Bangsar here.
City Crime Investigation chief SAC Rusdi Mohd Isa said police were looking for the suspect.
"The incident was reported on Dec 27to the Brickfields district police headquarters," he told theSun today.
It was reported that the victim, in her 20s, had picked up a man in Taman Bandaraya at around 11.45am and was driving to a nearby office building when he began to touch her and harass her.
The man then grabbed the victim’s thigh, showed her pictures of his penis and fondled the driver's breast.
The suspect then eventually left the car but the driver's nightmare did not end as he continued to harass her by sending lewd messages over WhatsApp.
It is learnt that the case is being classified under Section 354 of the Penal Code for assault or use of criminal force on a person with intent to outrage modesty.
If convicted, the suspect could face 10 years in jail or whipping or both.
Meanwhile, Country Head of Grab Malaysia, Jaygan Fu confirmed that the victim made a police report and they are assisting her to install an in-car camera for added safety.
"We have introduced various safety features to assist our partners in the event of any situation such as our in-car camera initiative (as mentioned), 24-7 and emergency hotline and also a police button on our Grab partner's app so they can contact the nearest police station in the event of any emergency," he said, adding that they have also removed the passenger from their platform.
This is not the first ride share has been hit with a complaint about an unsavoury incident during a journey.
In November last year, a routine ride share to the mall using the Grabhitch e-hailing service turned into a nightmare for a female passenger when her driver allegedly flashed his genitals to her during the trip.
In the Nov 8 incident, the victim recalled how the driver had asked her personal questions and when they reached the highway, he exposed his private parts to her.
Grabhitch is a service where users can hitch a ride with private drivers who are going the same way, for a small fee.