Delhi rape: Cab driver sent to three-day custody

A court here Monday sent an Uber cab driver to three days' police custody on charges of raping a 25-year-old working woman in the capital.

Metropolitan Magistrate Ambika Singh allowed Delhi Police to quiz 32-year-old driver Shiv Kumar Yadav for three days.

Police sought custodial interrogation of the accused, saying they needed to recover a mobile phone and other articles related to the case.

Various organisations protested outside the Tis Hazari court here against such crimes and demanded safety and security of women in the city.

Amid tight security, police presented the cab driver - with his face covered - in the court.

The accused, however, refused to undergo a test identification parade.

Yadav was arrested Sunday from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.

During investigation, it was found that the driver had a criminal record and was accused in another rape case.

Besides, the Uber taxi company had not given him any public service verification (badge) or any employer's verification certificate.

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. Friday.

According to an investigator, the driver thought the woman could be a "soft target" and intentionally took a long route to drop her at her residence in north Delhi's Inderlok.

The investigator said the cab's GPS system showed that it started from Vasant Vihar from where the driver took a left turn from R.K. Puram Sector 8.

The driver then took the Ring Road going towards Dhaula Kuan. He passed Mayapuri, Rajouri Garden, Moti Nagar and reached Tri Nagar in west Delhi. "Near the Zakhira flyover in west Delhi, he parked the car while the woman was sleeping and came to the rear seat," the officer said.

While he was trying to molest the woman, she woke up and resisted his attempt.

"He slapped me thrice and threatened to insert an iron rod in my private parts. He raped me and dropped me at home," the woman said in her police complaint, a copy of which is with IANS.