Indian American Uber driver charged for demanding sex from a customer

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NEW YORK – A Uber driver from Chicago, Muhammad Fahim, 44, has been held on $100,000 bail and was charged with three counts of unlawful restraint for a July 4 incident in which he allegedly demanded sex from a 19-year-old customer.

Fahim had picked up the young woman at around 7:30 p.m. on July 4 in the 1600 block of North Lake Shore Drive. However, her ride request with the app was deleted.

After she offered him to pay cash for the ride, Fahim allegedly locked the doors and “told her that the fare had been canceled, and if she preformed sexual acts with him he would take her to her location.”

The woman refused and when Fahim’s car slowed down, she escaped and took another Uber to the 500 block of North Dearborn Street from where she called the police to report the incident.

When Fahim was stopped for a traffic violation last week, police were alerted to the July 4 incident.

A spokeswoman for Uber told the Chicago Tribune that Fahim has been removed as a driver and banned permanently from the company, while Uber officials look into the matter.

“We take these types of reports very seriously. What’s been reported is horrifying, and we’ll work with police and provide any information to them that would be useful to the investigation,” she said.

The ride-sharing company added that “no person should have to go through” what was reported and said that it would hand over any relevant information to law enforcement but declined to share more details regarding the investigation.