Bhubaneswar: A day after the president of app-based cab-auto drivers’ association was arrested for last Wednesday’s rampage, the admin of All Odisha Online Driver and Worker Association was nabbed on Saturday, allegedly for extorting money from other cab drivers who didn’t join the protest he organised, taking the total number of arrests to 115.Jatin Jena, a cab driver, and his friends allegedly stopped other online cab drivers from operating and forced them to join the protest.Police said Jena was also involved in the protest at Master Canteen on Wednesday. “Based on evidence, Jena was arrested and produced in a court, which remanded him in judicial custody,” said police.A complaint against Jena was lodged in Infocity police station by a cab driver, Nizamuddin Layak, who alleged that he was harassed, humiliated and extorted.A police officer said the cab driver was on his way to pick up a passenger. “On the way, some people stopped him, claiming they were enforcing a strike. They forcibly deleted the online application from his mobile phone and punctured the wheel of his motorcycle. Since he did not join the strike, the miscreants insulted him by throwing a ‘chappal garland’ around his neck, abused and assaulted him, and forcibly collected Rs 500 from him through e-wallet,” the police officer said.Police investigation found that accused Jena, along with his associates, was forcibly enforcing the strike. They were stopping taxi and autos of different aggregators, compelling them to join the strike, and those who refused were fined and humiliated.Besides the arrest of Dinabandhu Nayak, the president of the app-based vehicle drivers’ association, on Friday, so far, 114 people out of 174 detained in connection with Wednesday’s incident have been arrested, with 60 being released on PR bond. As many as 377 autorickshaws, seized during the protest, are still under police custody, police said.
