German couple taken for a ride' by driver

New Delhi: When a German couple landed at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on September 3, they could never have imagined that they would not reach their hotel at Connaught Place and that their driver, whom they had hired, would abandon them midway.

The couple filed a police complaint against a taxi driver who allegedly misled them and did not drop them at their hotel in Connaught Place (CP). The driver told them that there was a demonstration going on in the city and that the police had blocked some streets including the one where their hotel was located. The driver dropped them midway and ran away.

“On September 3, at around 11 pm, my partner and I arrived at the Delhi airport and booked a public taxi to the Metropolitan Hotel in Connaught Place area. On our way to the city, the driver told us that there were demonstrations being held in the city. The police had blocked some streets including the street to the hotel. Therefore, he could not drive us to the hotel. Instead, he took us to an alleged ‘government tourist information center,’ which the driver claimed was a tour and transport development company. The driver dropped us at the office and left,” said the complainant, Lemar Tokhi, a resident of Wuppertal in Germany.

Meanwhile, Delhi police filed a case on Thursday against the unknown accused under the prevention of touting and malpractice and is investigating the matter, said a police official on the condition of anonymity.

A source said that there are a number of such elements who lure foreign nationals under the pretext of offering cheap taxi fare. They not only misbehave with them, but also charge them extra. There have been a number of incidents in which app-based taxi drivers often cancelled booking on their own, denying services at odd hours.