Delhi government bans Uber taxi company

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government Monday banned "all activities" by Uber taxi company after one of its drivers was arrested on charges of raping a woman.

An official statement said the Delhi government's transport department had also blacklisted the company from providing any transport service in the national capital in future.

The government action follows Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick statement earlier in the day, which sought to shift some of the blame on the government’s transport licensing programme.

A statement by Kalanick pledged to support the police investigation and said, "We will work with the government to establish clear background checks currently absent in their commercial transportation licensing programs."

The Uber taxi driver accused of raping a 25-year-old working woman on Friday night, could be a serial rapist, Delhi police authorities revealed earlier today.

Shiv Kumar Yadav, driver of the popular taxi service Uber, who was arrested in Mathura on December 7, allegedly told the police after interrogation that he was imprisoned for seven months for raping a 22-year-old employee of a Gurgaon pub in 2011 and was out on bail.

The Delhi police said he was accused of rape in 2011 but Uber got his background check done when he was hired and found nothing incriminating. The cops also added that the cab did not have the mandatory GPS.

Delhi police authorities was quoted by Mail Today as saying: 'Yadav was questioned at the Highway Police station after he was nabbed from Chandrapuri Mohalla. After sustained interrogation, he broke down and admitted that he had raped the 25-year-old girl when she was returning from a party in Vasant Vihar in south Delhi to her home in Inderlok in North Delhi on Friday night.'

Officials added it was then that the accused also disclosed that he was involved in a separate rape incident.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), Madhur Verma told Mail Today: 'After raping, and then threatening the victim not to report the incident, Yadav went to his ancestral house in Chandrapuri Mohalla on Saturday morning. His wife was not expecting him home at that time and, seeing him in a dishevelled state, asked him if he was the rapist news channels had been reporting on. He lied to her, saying he was being framed in a false case. He told her they would have to leave immediately. But before they could flee, several teams of Delhi Police arrived and Yadav took off on his own.'

On Sunday, Shiv Kumar Yadav was taken into custody from his hideout in Mathura, about 135 km south of the capital, Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat told IANS in Delhi.

The 32-year-old driver, a resident of Mathura, was caught in a joint operation by Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police force.

A police official told IANS 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 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.

In her police complaint, the woman said she finished her day-long shift around 7 p.m. 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 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 around 1.30 a.m. Saturday and informed officials about her ordeal. (Agencies)