Uber cab driver Shiv Kumar Yadav's 'character certificate' issued by Delhi police fake: Commissioner B S Bassi

NEW DELHI: A 'character certificate' purportedly issued in the name of an Additional DCP of the Delhi Police in August this year to the driver accused in the Uber rape case has given a new twist to the case today even as Delhi Police Commissioner termed it as fake and ordered an inquiry into it.

The alleged certificate, which was doing the rounds on internet and widely quoted on TV reports gave a clean chit to the accused Shiv Kumar Yadav, who was also accused in a similar rape case in 2011 and had even spent seven months in Tihar jail. He was later acquitted in the case.

The certificate was issued with the signature of an Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) in August this year, saying Yadav was not involved in any criminal case as per the records of Ambedkar Nagar Police Station.

Police suspect that the certificate was forged by Yadav or he may have procured it from somewhere and submitted to Uber to get him and his cab attached to the company.

Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi told reporters that on the date and place mentioned in the certificate, the officer was not posted there.

"I would like to inform you that we have got information that the date on which the said certificate was issued, the officer, whose signature are on the certificate, was not posted there.

"So, prima facie this antecedent's verification certificate is fake. An FIR has been registered to ensure a proper inquiry into the matter of forgery and cheating on the basis of the certificate," he said.

DCP (Southeast) Mandeep Singh Randhawa has been asked to probe the matter and give a report in this connection by Bassi.

Asked whether people will raise fingers at Delhi Police, which has been accusing Uber of flouting norms, Bassi said, "I don't go by what is being said by others."

"We are conducting an investigation, our investigation... and in our investigation if we find people at fault, action will be taken," he said.

Yadav, who was driving the Uber cab, allegedly raped the woman at around 9:30 PM on Friday when the victim, who works for a finance company in Gurgaon, was heading back home in north Delhi's Inderlok area.

After a massive search, involving 12 Delhi police teams, in Mathura and other parts of Uttar Pradesh, Yadav was arrested last evening and brought to Delhi. He was produced in a local court which sent him to three days police custody for interrogation and recovery of a mobile phone.