The Pune Police have reportedly asked Google and Apple to remove the Rapido app from their Play Store and App Store as part of its crackdown on bike taxis. According to a report by The Times of India, bike taxi service could soon become unavailable in Pune unless Rapido secures the necessary approvals. Rapido’s application seeking approval to operate bike taxis has been pending with the transport department.
Rapido does not have approval for bike taxi
“They were warned of legal action if they failed to comply with the norms. An FIR was lodged against them last week, and now the RTA chairperson and police have also stepped in,” an RTO official said, adding that “If they comply with all requirements under the bike taxi policy, they may get approval. However, their unauthorised operations could complicate matters.”
Earlier, Pune district collector and Regional Transport Authority (RTA) chairperson Jitendra Dudi had directed Rapido to suspend its bike taxi operations across Pune district until it secured an e-bike taxi aggregator licence.
Not the first time
This is not the first time Rapido has faced action, including suspension in various cities for illegally operating bike taxies. Rapido has faced accusations including the use of aggregator platforms without holding a valid state transport or aggregator certificate under the Motor Vehicles Act.
The company has also been accused of failing to carry out the mandatory background checks of its drivers and allowing the use of non-commercial private motorcycles for commercial passenger transport rather than registered commercial vehicles.
Under scanner over Tiger Shroff shooting
The development comes even as the Bengaluru-based cab aggregator is under the scanner in Maharashtra in connection with the firing incident targeting Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff earlier this month.
One of the alleged gunmen, Hrithik Kumar, was registered on the Rapido platform as a “captain”. Responding to the reports, Rapido, in a statement, said that the company was aware of the development. The cab aggregator, however, said that on the day of the shooting, the accused used the app as a customer.
“He has not been active as a captain on our platform since 14th October. As is common in India’s larger gig economy, individuals may be registered with several platforms at the same time. On the day of the incident, the individual had used Rapido’s services as a customer,” Rapido said.
Rapido also revealed that the company has been in touch with the authorities and cooperating the probe.
“We are in constant touch with the authorities and are supporting them in their investigation. We responded promptly and have shared all the information requested from us,” the statement added.