Police file chargesheet against Uber cab driver

Delhi Police, less than 20 days after a 25-year-old woman was raped in a cab provided by app-based taxi service Uber, concluded its investigations in the case and filed a 100-page chargesheet against 32-year-old driver Shiv Kumar Yadav.

Delhi Police on Wednesday — less than 20 days after a 25-year-old woman was raped in a cab provided by app-based taxi service Uber — concluded its investigations in the case and filed a 100-page chargesheet against 32-year-old driver Shiv Kumar Yadav.

Yadav has been accused of kidnapping, raping and criminally intimidating his victim in the chargesheet.

The police in its chargesheet, submitted before metropolitan magistrate Ajay Kumar Malik on Wednesday, said it will rely on the testimony of 44 witnesses willing to depose against the accused Yadav. The court has fixed January 2 for further hearing in the matter and directed that Yadav remain in judicial custody till then.

Yadav has been charged with rape, kidnapping, criminal intimidation and causing hurt by the police, the maximum penalty under the Indian Penal Code for which is 10 years (for rape and kidnapping a woman) each.

During the hearing, police stated that forensic evidence, including the cab’s route map, prove that the incident took place during a two-and-a-half-hour period during which the 25-year-old victim was in the accused’s taxi.

Yadav, a cabbie registered with Uber, stands accused of allegedly raping the woman on the night of December 5 when the victim was headed back to her 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.