Uber cab driver was arrested in 2011 rape case, spent 7 months in prison

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Monday revealed that the rape accused Uber cab driver is a repeat offender and was arrested in a sexual assault case in 2011.

According to police, Shiv Kumar Yadav spent seven months in Delhi's Tihar jail in connection with a sexual assault case but was acquitted later.

Yadav, the 32-year-old cab driver accused of raping the woman working with a global tax consultancy and advisory firm on Saturday night, was arrested on Sunday after an unflagging search operation that involved a chase through the streets of Mathura and ended with the police busting a house in which the accused had holed up.

Yadav is married to his brother's widow. He has two daughters and a stepson. While his wife and daughters stay in Mathura, the boy stays with Yadav's brother in Delhi. Yadav has been a cab driver in Delhi for a few years now.

Sources said he has confessed to the crime during interrogation but has shown little remorse. "Galti ho gayi saab, kya karoon ab (I committed a mistake. What do I do now)," he told an interrogator.

The police have also sent a notice to the rideshare service Uber to join investigations and explain the "lapses and negligence" in its operation which has drawn the attention of investigators.

A source in the probe team told TOI that the police had zeroed in on Yadav on Sunday afternoon after ascertaining his presence through a local tip-off. Special commissioner (law and order) Deepak Mishra said that his team had carried out the operation to apprehend Yadav at 6pm through "scientific identification and investigation procedures" involving local intelligence.

Yadav was accompanied by a friend and was apparently heading to a safer hideout after collecting money when the teams closed in on him around 6pm. Yadav spotted the police team and ran through the streets to dodge them. However, three teams led by ACP Devesh Mahla, ACP Subhash Tandon and SHO Anil Dureja zeroed in on him from three directions.

Yadav entered a random house and locked himself. He was apparently looking for a hostage when Dureja's team broke open the door and pinned him down on the floor. He was overpowered and frisked for weapons or poison that he may be carrying and was subsequently placed under arrest.

He was produced before a magistrate and is being brought to Delhi amidst heavy security on a production warrant. He will be produced before a Delhi court on Monday.

AAP workers staged a protest outside home minister Rajnath Singh's residence against the rape of the woman executive in Delhi. The protesters, who were questioning government's lack of action and the safety of women in the national capital, were forcibly evicted by the police.