Pune, Oct 26: Pune police have asked Google and Apple to remove the Rapido app from their app stores in a bid to shut down the company's unlicensed bike taxi service in the city. 'We have already sent communications to Google Play Store and Apple's App Store to put down Rapido's application,' Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar told the Times of India, according to a MediaNama report published on Monday.

Source: MediaNama (reporting Times of India)

Rapido does not have a licence to operate bike taxis in Pune. Its application for an aggregator licence, filed on August 11, is pending with the state transport department, while rides continue across the city, the Times of India reported. An RTO official told the newspaper that if the company complied with all requirements under the bike taxi policy it could get approval, but that its unauthorised operations could complicate matters. Rapido had resumed bike taxis in Pune on October 7, the same day the state ordered all aggregators to go fully electric by July 2027, MediaNama noted.

Source: MediaNama

The police letter follows two enforcement actions this month. On October 15, Pune District Collector Jitendra Dudi, who chairs the Regional Transport Authority (RTA), ordered Rapido to suspend its bike taxi service, saying that until a licence is granted a company cannot operate a two-wheeler aggregator service. On October 16, Regional Transport Office (RTO) inspectors booked a Rapido ride as a decoy and a petrol-powered two-wheeler registered for private use arrived to fulfil the booking; police then filed a first information report (FIR) against Rapido's parent company, Roppen Transportation Services, at Vishrantwadi police station, involving allegations of cheating and offences under the Motor Vehicles Act and the IT Act. The allegations are under investigation and have not been proved.

Source: MediaNama

Dudi had also formally asked the Police Commissioner to disable the bike taxi option on the Rapido app within the district, urging the police cyber cell to intervene so the company could not offer rides lacking regulatory permission, Mirror Now reported. RTO officials said enforcement was continuing, with more than 10 operators penalised and fines of over Rs 60,000 issued, and reiterated that no authorisation has been granted for bike taxis in the city.

Source: Mirror Now

Oct 15Collector and RTA chair Jitendra Dudi orders Rapido to suspend Pune bike taxi operations
Oct 16FIR registered against Roppen Transportation Services at Vishrantwadi police station after a decoy RTO booking
Rs 60,000+Fines issued to more than 10 operators in the ongoing RTO enforcement, per Mirror Now

The October 16 case was also reported independently by The Hindu BusinessLine and Inc42, which said the FIR alleged that Rapido used its app to facilitate paid passenger rides on two-wheelers registered as non-transport vehicles, and that the company's Pune licence application had earlier been rejected in December 2022. Autorickshaw unions, meanwhile, have criticised the authorities for issuing letters without actually stopping the service, and have raised concerns about rider verification and passenger safety, while some residents told the Times of India that public transport gaps and overcharging by other operators persist.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

Maharashtra has attempted an app-store takedown before: on May 15, Maharashtra Cyber ordered Google and Apple to remove the Ola, Uber and Rapido apps under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act after a complaint from Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik; the apps were taken down that night and restored the next day after the Centre intervened, and the state then said operators would have to run separate, geo-fenced bike taxi apps for Maharashtra, MediaNama reported. Whether Google and Apple act on the Pune police communication, and any response from Rapido, had not been reported at the time of publication.

Source: MediaNama