Police in East Jakarta have arrested a driver for online motorcycle taxi service GrabBike who allegedly sexually assaulted his 17-year-old passenger.
Police said the driver, identified as Chairullah, was hailed by a teenage passenger, DS, in Tebet, South Jakarta, yesterday morning so that she could go to her internship in Central Jakarta.
Chairullah, who had driven DS on numerous occasions before, didn’t take his passenger to her workplace. Instead, he took her to an empty house belonging to his friend in Matraman, East Jakarta.
“(The suspect) kissed the victim until she was lying on the floor and passed out,” said East Jakarta Police Chief Andry Wibowo, as quoted by Kumparan today.
According to the police, Chairullah then raped DS while she was unconscious. Following the sexual assault, Chairullah dropped DS off at her internship in Central Jakarta.
Chairullah was arrested soon after DS and her parents reported the rape to the police. He may be jailed for up to 15 years for sexual assault of a minor.
Grab Indonesia apologized for the incident and said they have terminated their working partnership with Chairullah.
“We deeply apologize after letting down our customers and the general public. With all humility we ask passengers and partner drivers to allow Grab to continue to elevate our safety standards and service,” said Grab Indonesia Country Marketing Director Mediko Azwar, as quoted by Kumparan.
Grab also pledged to tighten the screening process for new drivers in order to prevent cases like this from happening again.
In July, Grab suspended a partner driver after he allegedly sexually harassed his passenger using the app’s chat feature.
