Little would have taxi driver Jamil Ahmad Khan imagined at the time of overcharging a passenger on April 11, 2015, will result in the suspension of his license one year later.
On that particular date, Raymond Yeo, 50, from Singapore approached Khan for a drop to the Terminal 2 of Mumbai International Airport. Yeo was staying at the Lalit Hotel in Mumbai, which is about 1 km away from the said airport.
Khan stated that he will charge INR 200 for the airport drop. Yeo knew that he was being overcharged, but as is the case with most travelers, he was short of time and didn’t want to argue with the cabbie outside the hotel gate. He agreed to pay INR 200 and sat inside the cab.
When they reached the airport, Khan asked for INR 500 instead of the agreed sum of INR 200. Before Yeo could understand why was he being overcharged, Khan stated that the extra amount was because of the extra luggage he was carrying. Yeo was left stunned at the reply. Yeo had no other choice but to pay him the amount as he was getting late.
While most would ignore the incident, Yeo took up the matter with the Prime Minister’s Office by registering a complaint, as he had been warned by friends that such instances were common phenomena. From the PMO, the complaint was forwarded to the office of the Maharashtra Transport Commissioner in Bandra on Monday.
The said Mumbai taxi driver was tracked down by Social activist Binu Varghese and his team at the Mumbai airport as Yeo had noted down the taxi registration number and the name of the driver. While Khan initially denied driving Yeo to the airport, he was shown a photograph that Yeo had taken of him on that particular day.
Khan has now found his license suspended while the tourist travel permit of the cab has also been revoked for a period of 30 days. The cab is owned by Mahek Tours and Travels, Thane. A consideration is on to cancel the driver’s license permanently.
via mumbaimirror
