An Uber driver was sentenced to life in prison for raping a passenger in Delhi, India.
Shiv Kumar Yadav, a man working for U.S.-based online taxi company Uber in India with fake references, committed the crime last December. The felony took place after the passenger fell asleep on the way home. Yadav drove the woman to a remote place and raped her. The victim, who is working for an international consulting firm, pressed charges and the sentence was given by an Indian court on Tuesday, Nov 3.
Reuters is reporting that the Uber passenger had also sued the transport company in a U.S. federal court back in January, but she withdrew her suit later on.
These kind of cases are getting more severe in India and this particular one revised memories of a rape and murder incident on a moving bus back in 2012, in the same city. This became the subject of a BBC documentary which was actually banned in India by the government, earlier this year. India’s National Crime Records Bureau said that almost 338,000 crimes were committed against women in 2014, including 36,735 rapes .
Following last December’s rape incident, Uber introduced safety measures and tightened driver checks. The firm was initially banned in Delhi, but a court recently reversed the decision. The federal government also released guidelines to regulate online taxi companies suggesting better security checks and not contracting anyone who is convicted under India’s criminal laws.
