Uber cab rape case: Re-examination of victim continues

Accused Shiv Kumar Yadav's plea to recall several prosecution witnesses was recently allowed by Delhi High Court

The re-examination of the woman, allegedly raped by a driver of Uber cab service provider, continued today in a Delhi court where the accused asked her about her visit to a Gurgaon hotel with her friends before the incident.

The victim is being re-examined in-camera by the counsel for accused Shiv Kumar Yadav, whose plea to recall several prosecution witnesses was recently allowed by the Delhi High Court.

According to sources, Yadav's counsel asked the woman several questions relating to her outing with friends in the hotel on the evening of December 5, 2014, after which she had boarded the taxi driven by the accused from Vasant Vihar and was allegedly raped by him.

Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja, the sources said, disallowed several questions asked by the defence counsel and the woman also refused to answer them. The statement was recorded in the presence of the judge and only the parties concerned.

Her cross-examination, which remained inconclusive, would continue on March 9.

The 25-year-old woman was called for her re-examination by the defence counsel on March 5, when she was understood to have told the court that she was traumatised due to the undue delay in proceedings owing to dilatory tactics of accused and being made to relive the ghastly incident.

The court, which was hearing final arguments in the case, had again summoned the woman in compliance of the Delhi High Court order that was passed on an appeal filed by Yadav seeking to recall all the 28 prosecution witnesses to cross examine them again in the case.

The high court had however allowed Yadav to recall only 13 prosecution witnesses including the victim, doctors, forensic expert and investigating officer of the case.

According to the prosecution, the incident took place on the night of December 5 last year when the victim, a finance executive working in Gurgaon, was heading back home.

Police said the woman had taken the taxi from Vasant Vihar to return to her house in Inderlok area of North Delhi and the accused, who took another route, allegedly raped her. Yadav was arrested on December 7, 2014 from Mathura.

In her statement recorded before the court earlier, the woman had identified Yadav as the one who had raped her.

The court has framed charges against Yadav under IPC for alleged offences of endangering a woman's life while raping her, abducting with an intent to compel her for marriage and criminally intimidating and causing hurt.

The court had also recorded the testimony of the accused in which he termed the charge against him as "false".