The Mumbai unit of the BJP on Saturday honoured an Uber driver with “Alert Citizen Award” after he reported a passenger to cops assuming the phone conversation that the man was having was about the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Police had recorded statements of both the passenger poet-activist Bappadittya Sarkar and the driver Rohit Singh Gour but found nothing suspicious.
“Rohit Gaur handed over a passenger who was conspiring against the Citizenship Amendment Act to the police. We called Rohit Gaur to Santacruz and greeted him on behalf of the people of Mumbai and honored him with the Alert Citizen Award,” Lodha wrote on Twitter.
Uber had acted swiftly to suspend Gour for reporting his passenger to the police. Gour said he stood by his decision to report Sarkar after overhearing his conversation. “I have done my job as an alert citizen,” he had said Friday.
Sarkar reportedly took an Uber cab from Juhu to Kurla around 10.30 pm on Wednesday. During the journey he was discussing with his friend on mobile phone people’s discomfort with `Laal Salaam’ slogan at Shaheen Bagh protest in Delhi.
Gour, who was listening, stopped the cab and told Sarkar he wanted to withdraw money from ATM. But he then returned with two policemen with him.
The policemen took both the men to a police station where Sarkar was questioned before he was allowed to leave.