A travel vlogger from the United States was allegedly misled, threatened and scammed by a Kolkata taxi driver, who claimed to have mafia connections, shows a video recently shared by the YouTuber.
The video, which has now gone viral, shows an altercation between travel vlogger Dustin, a taxi driver, and the latter’s companion. Upon arriving at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Dustin had booked a local taxi instead of booking a cab via Uber to save time.
Dustin had requested the driver to take him to Hotel Great Western on Park Street. However, instead of heading towards central Kolkata, the driver allegedly took him nearly 15 kilometres in the opposite direction to The Westin hotel in Rajarhat – a completely different area.
Dustin refused to pay extra money for the driver’s mistake as he had informed him about the location beforehand. At this point, another man in a red shirt, seemingly the driver’s companion, became abusive, the video shows.
“Shift him to another car,” the man said and forced Dustin to pay an additional Rs 200. The man, who was allegedly drunk, later asked Dustin to pay Rs 150 extra as a parking fee.
Dustin pointed out that the driver had agreed to accept Rs 700 to drive him to Hotel Great Western on Park Street from the airport. The fare was already higher than that shown on app cab platforms.
“Uber said Rs 550. You said Rs 700. We agreed to 700. You made a mistake, and now you are making me pay more for this,” Dustin is heard saying in the video.
However, the driver’s companion went on to threaten Dustin with mafia connections. “I have a mafia connection. I will break your bones,” he said, hurling other expletives at Dustin.
The driver then stopped the car and asked Dustin to switch to another taxi.
“Taxi driver tried to scam and threaten me in Kolkata,” wrote Dustin in the caption to his video on YouTube.
However, Dustin added that the disturbing and ‘ridiculous’ incident had not marred his overall experience in India so far.
The video has left social media users enraged. “I have reported this to Kolkata Police with the video link and requested prompt action against such hooliganism,” one of them said. “I am so sorry for the behaviour that you faced. People should be kind. It is really shameful for us,” reads another comment.
“Absolutely shameful Kolkata. You guys can't do this. Sir please report to the police if you feel so. The first Taxi driver was polite, but that tout was drunk and using slang. Kolkata police should locate him and punish him...not expected Kolkata,” wrote another social media user.