The terrified girl then jumped from a moving Uber car in Chicago after the driver demanded that she pay for her transport by having sex with him.
A US court in Chicago has heard how Muhammad Fahim, 44, allegedly picked up the 19-year-old victim after her app request for a ride, the Chicago Tribune reported. Her journey log was strangely deleted from the app, however. According to the report, the girl offered to pay Fahim in cash as a result of the app malfunction.
When the girl wanted to pay for the journey by cash, Fahim instead demanded sex, thinking he could get away with it, Assistant State’s Attorney Mikah Soliunas told a court. When she refused, Fahim locked the car’s doors repeatedly and kept speeding on believing that she would eventually give in to his demands.
The girl only escaped when she jumped out of the moving Uber vehicle when Fahim had to slow down due to traffic, Soliunas said. He now faces three counts of unlawful restraint for the incident on 4 July.
Fahim was detained after Chicago police had stopped him for a traffic violation. As officers checked his name, they were alerted to the 4 July attempted rape incident. He is being held on $100 000 bail.
An Uber spokesman described the allegations as “troubling” and said Fahim had been removed as a driver.