A news story recently published by WRAL in Raleigh, NC, reports that on Thursday, July 22, 2021, Uber driver Muhammed Arslan Afzal was charged by the Wake County Sheriff with sexually assaulting a female passenger. Afzal faces charges of first-degree kidnapping, attempted second-degree forcible sex offense, indecent exposure and sexual assault.
The victim told investigators that she requested an Uber in Wake Forest in the early hours of May 9 to take her to her home in Raleigh. During the trip, the driver pulled onto the shoulder of Interstate 540 in Knightdale and convinced the woman to sit in the front passenger seat to help him with his GPS system.
The driver then groped and assaulted the woman and performed sex acts on himself, over a 20-minute period. The woman was able to call her family during the ordeal, and as soon as the Uber pulled up outside her home, family members were waiting for her and she fled the vehicle.
Muhammed Arslan Afzal is currently being held in the Wake County jail under $250,000 bond.