An Uber driver has been charged with kidnapping and groping a woman after she fell asleep in his car

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A stock image of a car making trips for Uber.

• 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.

Complimentary Tech Event

Transform talent with learning that works

Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

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.

Google Maps

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.

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."