Child Rape Suspect: Grab Thailand on Friday denied that a man who has been arrested for allegedly raping a passenger was one of its drivers, saying he used another man’s Grab account.
The firm said the account has been terminated and the person who allowed the alleged rapist to use his account would be permanently banned from the service.
“The company hereby affirms that the person who committed the crime was not a driver of the company but he impersonated a Grab driver to lure the victim and the incident took place when the passenger was not using our application,” the statement said.
The company was referring to the incident that took place on August 19 when a 16-year-old girl was raped under the Krung Thon Bridge.
Police said the victim, who studies at a vocational school, called a Grab taxi to take her home after a night shift at a fast-food restaurant after school but the Grab car that she called failed to show up.
While she was waiting, a Honda Jazz allegedly stopped and the driver told her he was also a Grab driver and offered to drive her home without using the app.
Police said Wisanu then asked for the girl’s mobile phone number so that he could contact her to offer services without having to use the Grab app.
The suspect then called her on August 19 to inquire whether she wanted to use his driving service. The girl agreed, saying three of her friends would go along to get off along the way.
But when all other passengers left, the man allegedly took her to rape under the bridge and left her there. He used a condom, the police said.
Police said the suspect was a former ranger and has been charged in several other rape cases and he used the account under his father’s name.
Grab Thailand said it fully cooperated with the police, leading to the arrest of the suspect.
It advised passengers to have direct contact with drivers, saying its app has safety measures to save them from danger.
The company said the app has an emergency button to alert police and users can also add three phone numbers that will be alerted when the app’s emergency button is activated.
Wisanu was unavailable for comment.
