NEW DELHI: The police on Wednesday filed a chargesheet in a local court against the driver of the US-based Uber taxi service for raping a 27-year-old woman executive.
Accused Shiv Kumar Yadav has been arraigned under Sections 376 (rape), 366 (kidnapping or abducting woman with an intent to compel her for marriage), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC.
The investigative officer told the court that there were 44 prosecution witnesses and they relied on the forensic evidence. They also placed on record the route map of the car in which the offence had been committed.
Metropolitan Magistrate Ajay Kumar Malik posted the case to January 2 and also extended the judicial custody of the driver until then.
According to the chargesheet, the horrendous crime took place during the two-and-a-half hour period after the rape survivor was picked up by the cabbie.
Yadav was produced before the magistrate with his face covered. His wife was also present during the hearing. The accused had raped the woman on the night of December 5 when the victim, who works for a finance company in Gurgaon, was returning home in North Delhi’s Inderlok area.
He was arrested on December 7 from Mathura in a joint operation by Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police and produced before the court on December 8.
Earlier, the police had told the court that during Yadav’s interrogation, they have recovered mobile phones and clothes, which he was wearing at the time of the offence.
The police had also told the court that Yadav was hired by Uber without carrying out a proper background check and a case of cheating has been lodged against the firm.
Yadav, along with Javneet Singh, was remanded in judicial custody in connection with a separate forgery case recently lodged against him. Singh was said to be the tout, who had assisted Yadav in procuring the fake character certificate.
According to police, Yadav had got All India Tourist Permit after submitting the character certificate to the State Transport Authority at Burari here. And for helping Yadav to procure that, Singh had taken `2,000 from him and had forged the character certificate and got it attested by a notary.
Ban Still On The High court on Wednesday refused to lift the ban on Uber cab services in the national capital.
Justice Vibhu Bakhru, however, asked Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd to give its representation to state administration’s Transport Department on December 29.
The court also declined Uber’s request that it should be granted the relief in parity with the OLA cab, which has been allowed to operate in the capital for the time being.