NEW DELHI: A massive search operation was today on across three states to nab the taxi driver of an international cab-booking service, who allegedly raped a 27-year-old woman on her way home on Friday night.
The driver identified as Shiv Kumar Yadav (32) hails from Mathura, UP, and the car in which the crime took place was recovered from the city late last night.
Several Delhi Police teams are on a hunt to track him down in Delhi, Haryana and UP.
The incident took place at around 9:30 PM on Friday when the woman, who works for a finance company in Gurgaon, was headed back to her home in north Delhi's Inderlok area.
"The woman had gone to a restaurant for dinner with some friends after her shift ended at 7 P.M. One of her friends dropped her till Vasant Vihar from where she hired a cab run by a private company to take her to Inderlok," police had said citing the complaint filed by the victim.
On the way, the woman dozed off on the back seat of the car only to wake up and find that they had stopped at a secluded spot. She found that the car doors were locked and, when she tried to raise an alarm, the driver thrashed her and then committed rape, police said.
The accused then dropped her off near her home in Inderlok after threatening to kill her if she spoke of the matter to anybody.
A case has been registered at Sarai Rohilla Police Station under Sections 376 (rape), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC.
Meanwhile, the US-based cab service provider, which has come under attack for allegedly flouting norms, has issued a statement saying they are providing all help to police in the investigation.
"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.
"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," said Evelyn Tay, an Uber Spokeswoman.
Police said the driver did not have a driving licence issued by the Delhi Transport Authority and the only link the service provider had with him was an Smartphone App which he exited after the incident.
The company also could not immediately provide the call log to police as details were said to be stored at the company's headquarters in New York.