Delhi Police arrest cab driver accused of rape

The victim, who works at a finance company, was returning from a dinner engagement on Friday and used the mobile app Uber to hire a cab to drive her home.

Police push away protestors from All India Students Association who demonstrate outside the Delhi Police headquarters in New Delhi on Sunday after a taxi driver from the international cab-booking service Uber allegedly raped a young woman on Friday.

Shiv Kumar Yadav, the 32-year-old taxi driver charged with the rape of a 27-year-old passenger in New Delhi’s Inderlok area two days ago, was arrested by a joint team of Delhi and Mathura police on Sunday evening.

The accused had locked himself in a house in a village in Mathura and the door had to be broken open to arrest him, said the police. Sources, however, claimed that the accused surrendered after the police mounted pressure on locals and an MLA in his village of Dhauli Pyau.

The victim has said that Yadav raped her after picking her up at Vasant Vihar. He also thrashed the victim and threatened her with murder if she complained about the incident. “During interrogation, he revealed that he reached home around 5 a.m. on Saturday and abandoned the vehicle,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Madhur Verma.

Meanwhile, Uber Cab, through which the victim had hired Yadav’s services, has said that safety is their highest priority.

Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deepak Mishra said criminal action was likely to be taken against the company.

He rejected Uber’s stand that the company was a technology platform and not a transportation service and hence safety norms laid out by the government did not apply to it.