NYC Uber driver charged with kidnap, groping sleeping woman passenger

A stock image of a car
making trips for Uber.
Spencer
Platt/Getty Images

• An Uber driver was charged on Tuesday with kidnapping a woman
  in New York, changing her ride destination, and groping her as
  she slept.
• Prosecutors say driver Habir Parmar, 24, picked up his
  unnamed victim in Manhattan in February 2018 and attacked
  her once she had fallen asleep.
• A legal complaint says the woman was taken further than her
  home just outside New York City before she was groped, then
  dumped on the I-95 in Connecticut.
• The complaint says that the woman was also charged more than
  $1,000 for the journey.
• Parmar has been charged with one count of kidnapping, which
  carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He has also been
  charged with wire fraud.

An Uber driver has been charged with kidnapping and groping a
woman who fell asleep in his cab, then leaving her on the side of
the road miles from home.

Harbir Parmar, 24, was charged by prosecutors in New York with
one count of kidnapping the woman after picking her up in
February this year,
according to legal documents published on Tuesday.

The complaint says that Parmar picked up his victim in Manhattan
not long before midnight, and that she fell asleep during the
trip.

While the woman was sleeping, Parmar changed her destination from
White Plains, just outside of New York City, to Boston,
Massachusetts, according to the complaint.

It says she woke up with Parmar in the back seat of the car
groping her breast under her shirt. The Uber was far from her
home, the complaint says, likely somewhere in Connecticut.

A
map showing the locations described in the complaint. It says the
woman was picked up in Manhattan, asked to go to White Plains,
and ultimately found herself in Branford,
Connecticut.
Google
Maps

She tried to use her phone to call for help, but Parmar snatched
it away, the complaint says. Parmar allegedly refused to take her
home to White Plains, or to a police station, and left her on the
side of the I-95.

The woman found help by walking to a gas station in Branford,
Connecticut, around 60 miles from her home, the complaint says.
By this time it was 2 a.m., according to the document.

The complaint says that when the woman reported the incident the
following day, she learned she had been charged more than $1,000
for a trip from New York to Massachusetts. Uber says it refunded
the money.

In
a press release announcing the charge, FBI
official William Sweeney Jr. said: “Harbir Parmar made an
outrageous choice, deciding to unlawfully take advantage of his
passenger at a moment of vulnerability for his own selfish
motives.”

As well as the kidnapping, Parmar was charged with wire
fraud, which the FBI says it discovered while investigating the
kidnap charge. The complaint said Parmar had a history of
changing passenger destinations and billing them for unnecessary
cleaning fees.

In a statement to Business Insider, an Uber spokesman said:
“What’s been reported is horrible and something no person should
go through.

“As soon as we became aware, we immediately removed this
individual’s access to the platform. We have fully cooperated
with law enforcement and will continue to support their
investigation.”