An Indian-origin Uber driver in New York has been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay a penalty of several thousand dollars after he kidnapped a female passenger and dropped her off on an isolated highway.

The woman, who had requested a ride in Uber’s rideshare cab in February 2018, asked to be driven to White Plains, a suburb in New York City. The accused was identified as 25-year-old Harbir Parmar from New York. “Many people rely on rideshare apps to navigate New York safely. But when a woman hailed the ridesharing car driven by Parmar, her ride home took a turn for the worst. With Parmar's lengthy prison term, he will no longer be able to take advantage of ridesharing customers,” the United States Attorney for the southern district of New York said. The passenger, who was riding on the backseat of the cab, fell asleep midway when the driver changed the destination location on the mobile application to Boston, Massachusetts. She woke up while they were riding through Connecticut and demanded to take her back to White Plains or to a police station. However, the driver dropped her off on an isolated highway in Connecticut and left.

During the course of the investigation, it has also been determined that the driver had changed the drop location of several of his passengers in his mobile application, leading to the customers being overcharged for the trips.