Delhi cab rape: Uber driver a repeat offender; to be produced before court today

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Dec 08, 2014:  A cab driver, accused of raping a 25-year-old working woman in Delhi on Friday night, will be presented before a court on Monday.

Shiv Kumar Yadav was arrested on Sunday from his hideout in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura town, about 135 km south of the capital, police said. He has been brought to Delhi.

Shockingly, Yadav is a repeat offender and had spent seven months in jail in 2011 in a sexual assault case. According to the Delhi Police, the cab company failed to run a background check on the driver.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers are protesting outside the residence of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh​ over the issue. AAP members gathered outside the Home Minister’s residence at around 7.50 am and raised slogans against the government and Delhi Police for not taking proper action against the cab company. "At least 100 protestors have been detained for protesting outside the home minister’s residence and have been taken to the police station," DCP Vijay Singh told a news agency.

The members of Congress-backed National Students Union of India (NSUI) will also protest outside Singh’s residence later today, a report said.

The 32-year-old driver was taken into custody from his hideout in Mathura, about 135 km south of the capital, Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat told a news agency in Delhi.

Yadav, a resident of Mathura, was caught in a joint operation by Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police force.

A police official told IANS, a news agency, in Mathura that Yadav was being interrogated at the Highway Police Station after he was nabbed from Chandrapuri colony. Police said they have also seized a white car.

The driver, employed with international cab-booking company Uber, is accused of raping the woman who was returning home in north Delhi’s Inderlok area from Gurgaon, where she is employed as an analyst in a finance company in Sector 21 for the past three years.

After the name of Uber came up in the case, the app-based ride-sharing service on Sunday issued a statement, saying it has given police all details of the driver and GPS information.

"Our thoughts are with the victim of this terrible crime and we are working with police as they investigate. We will assist them in any way we can. It is also our policy to immediately suspend a driver’s account following allegations of a serious incident, which we have done," Uber spokeswoman Evelyn Tay said in a statement.

"Safety is Uber’s highest priority, and in India, we work with licensed driver-partners to provide a safe transportation option, with layers of safeguards such as driver and vehicle information, and ETA-sharing to ensure there is accountability and traceability of all trips that occur on the Uber platform," the spokeswoman said.

However, Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma said: "The driver of the cab, booked through Uber, had not been subjected to a police verification. The company, which did not get his background check done, was asked to join the investigation on Sunday."

He said the cab also did not have the mandatory GPS.

Police said they traced the driver’s cellphone number, and it was registered in the name of a person called Gaurav.

The driver also did not have a driving licence issued by the Delhi Transport Authority, which is recommended for those engaged in driving cabs in the capital.

Earlier on Sunday, the Delhi Police had declared a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information on the driver, a resident of Mathura, despite constituting 12 separate teams of Crime Branch and district police to arrest him following the rape.

In her police complaint, the woman said she finished her day-long shift at around 7 pm on Friday and went to a hotel in Gurgaon for dinner with her friends.

The woman was later dropped in Vasant Vihar area by her friends from where she hired a private cab at around 9.30 pm, police said quoting from the complaint.

"While on my way home, I fell asleep on the back seat of the cab. A few minutes later, I realised that the car was stopped at a secluded place and the driver was molesting me," the woman said in her complaint.

She said the driver slapped her many times when she objected to his molestation attempt.

"I tried to unlock the cab door but failed. The driver threatened to kill me and raped me," the woman said.

Police said the driver later dropped the woman near her home and once again threatened her with dire consequences if she approached police.

Police said the woman made a call to the police control room at around 1.30 am on Saturday and informed officials about her ordeal.

She also provided police a picture of the car’s number plate with the number DL 1YD 7910. The car, a Maruti Swift Dzire, was recovered from Mathura on Saturday night.

A formal complaint was registered by the woman at Sarai Rohilla police station in Delhi.

 

(With IANS inputs)