NRI charged Rs 2,800 for a 10-minute drive from Mumbai airport; cab driver arrested

Days after a teenager was overcharged by an auto-rickshaw driver, a non-resident Indian (NRI) who landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai was forced to pay Rs 2,800 for a 10-minute drive to the city’s Vile Parle area by a taxi driver.

An officer from the Sahar Police Station said that the incident took place on December 15, when D Vijay reached the Mumbai airport from Australia around midnight. Vijay, a Nagpur native who lives in Australia, told the police that as soon as he came out of the airport, the cab driver Vinod Goswami, approached him.

Goswami, who was later arrested by the police, convinced Vijay by showing him a fake app. Even though Vijay passed the pre-paid cab counter at the airport he agreed to go with Goswami. While Vijay made the payment, he suspected something amiss and checked with the hotel where he stayed. The hotel staff told him that they charge Rs 700 for their pick-up service. Realising he had been duped, he sent an e-mail to the Sahar police along with the mobile number of the cab driver.