Chargesheet filed in Uber rape case

New Delhi: Delhi Police Wednesday filed a chargesheet in a court here against a driver of the Uber taxi company who was accused of raping a 27-year-old working woman in the capital.

Police filed the chargesheet against Shiv Kumar Yadav before Metropolitan Magistrate Ajay Kumar Malik on charges of rape, abduction, threat to life and other charges.

The court fixed Jan 2, 2015 for consideration of the chargesheet.

Yadav, 32, allegedly committed the rape on the night of Dec 5, when the woman, who works for a finance company in Gurgaon, was heading back home in north Delhi's Inderlok area.

The chargesheet was filed after 29 days of the incident 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 Indian Penal Code.

In the over 100-page chargesheet, police cited 44 prosecution witnesses in support of its case.

Police also relied on forensic evidence and placed on record the route map of the car in which the offence was committed.

The ordeal took place during the two-and-a-half hours the woman had to spend in the cab after being picked up by the driver, said police.

The court also extended till Jan 2, 2015 the judicial custody of Yadav, who was produced in court after expiry of his custody.

The Delhi High Court also declined a plea by Uber against the ban and blacklisting of its services.

On Tuesday, the high court had set aside the Delhi government's ban on the Ola cab company, but refused the same relief to Uber.

In the rape case, it was found during investigation that the driver had a criminal record and was accused in an earlier rape case.

During investigation, it was also revealed that Yadav, who has three children, was arrested in 2011 in a rape case with the same modus operandi in south Delhi and spent seven months in Tihar jail.

He was later acquitted, after the victim took back the allegations.

Police said the driver was under the influence of alcohol while picking up the woman from south Delhi's Vasant Vihar between 10 and 10.15 p.m. Dec 5.