'Aap akeli rehti hai?': Rapido captain sends WhatsApp messages to Ghaziabad woman after ride; company responds

A routine bike taxi ride reportedly turned into an alarming incident when the Rapido captain continued the conversation after dropping-off the female passenger.

In the clip, shared by Instagram user Anushka, who is based in Ghaziabad, the woman attempted to capture her travel experience as a trend which turned out to be a troubling encounter with a stranger.

The video carried the overlaid text that read, "Rapido bike book kar leti hu kya hi ho jayega? (I'll just book a Rapido bike, what could possibly go wrong?)."

The clip followed by a reality check, "Ho gaya (Well, this happened)" included screenshots of strange and inappropriate Whatsapp messages she allegedly received from the Rapido captain after the ride was completed.

The screenshots evidently showed that the rider started the conversation, with the opening message, "Pehchaana nahi? Abhi toh drop karke aaya hoon (Didn’t recognise me? I just dropped you).”

After Anushka confirming that he was the Rapido driver, he carried on the message by complementing her that she looked cute.

"Traditional mein achchi lag rahi thi (you looked nice in traditional clothes)," he texted her.

Further, the rider went on to ask her age, whether she lived alone, but Anushka chose not to engage in the chat.

Instead, she replied, saying, "Tmko ky krna hai janke (Why do you need to know?)... "Apne kam se kam rkho bhai (Mind your own business, brother)."

When the rider took the conversation to an extend suggesting to meet her at 4 pm next day, Anushka decided to immediately block him.

Her post, which garnered 355K likes and 7000+ comments stirred a controversy among netizens about women's safety and data privacy.

One user wrote, “It's not a joke it's a serious problem.” While someone else questioned, “The audacity of them to ask out.”

“Men will be men,” one comment read and another added, “I can understand this same thing happened to me! One rapido bike rider texted me and called me on my number several times!”

Others raised technical concerns, “Isn't rapido bike driver/passenger phone number supposed to be masked?”

Some users even offered cautionary advice, “Firstly..if captian asked you to call on his personal phone number, dont do it behen!!!. Just Don't !!!!.. just use the call icon from the app... If you'll call on his personal number he will get your number!!!”

Rapido responds

Rapido responded to the ordeal the woman faced. In a reply to the Instagram video, the company dropped an apology.

""Hi, we sincerely apologize for the captain’s unethical behavior. This is completely unacceptable and does not reflect the service standards we aim to provide. Please share your registered mobile number and ride ID via DM so we can investigate this on priority and take strict necessary action," it read.