Police in Bali have brought four suspects into custody after an Uber driver was assaulted in the Seminyak area earlier this week.
Uber driver Ida Kadek Anom was hospitalized after he was forced out of his car on Sunday night, about to pick up a passenger near Jl. Saraswati, North Kuta. Anom was beaten brutally by a group of alleged ‘conventional’ taxi drivers, while his car was also vandalized, apparently hit with wooden beams and rocks.
The four suspects were arrested in Kuta on Friday and identified in a Tribun Bali report as Made Karyawan alias Baglug, 24, Ida Bagus Putu Oka Pujana, 20, Kadek Sulendra Adi Putra, 21, and I Kadek Suartawan alias Lembek, 27.
“With help from information from witnesses and the victim’s testimony, we were finally able to catch the perpetuators in the Seminyak area,” Kuta Police Chief Commissioner I Wayan Sumara said on Friday.
“At the moment, we are closely investigating the case. The perpetrators have confessed and given some information about the beating,” Sumara said.
While police have not confirmed that the perpetrators are indeed drivers, the arrival of ride-hailing apps like Uber and Grab has been extremely controversial in Bali, with much protest from traditional taxi drivers and local drivers associations. The apps remain very much operational in Bali despite efforts to ban them and other instances of intimidation against them.
