Uber driver charged with kidnapping, sexually assaulting customer in North Carolina

Published 10:56 am Friday, July 23, 2021

An Uber driver has been charged with sexually assaulting a customer earlier this year, according to a North Carolina sheriff’s office.

A news release from the Wake County Sheriff’s Office says investigators have charged Muhammad Arslan Afzal with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree forcible sexual offense, indecent exposure and sexual battery.

According to investigators, the driver stopped his car on the shoulder of Interstate 540 near Knightdale early on May 9 and asked his passenger to move to the front seat to help him with his GPS.

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The sheriff’s office says the driver assaulted the woman, then drove her to her destination before he fled the area. Warrants were secured on July 13 for Afzai’s arrest and, with help from the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office, he was located and arrested.

Afzal is being jailed under a $250,000 secured bond. It’s not known if he has an attorney.

In Columbia, South Carolina, a man is on trial for kidnapping and killing a University of South Carolina student who was out with friends when she disappeared. Police have said the student got into a car she thought was an Uber ride. But instead, it was driven by the man now charged with her murder.

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