NEW DELHI: A day after the accused in the Uber rape case was arrested in Mathura, the government has banned all operations of the US-based cab service provider in Delhi. Uber has also been blacklisted.
The 32-year-old cab driver Shiv Kumar, a father of three, was hiding in a wedding reception in Mathura when he was arrested. He is now remanded to police custody for three days by a Delhi court for interrogation to recover the mobile phone he had used during the crime.
However, the accused who belongs to Mainpuri district, has refused to undergo the Test Identification Parade (TIP), a process under the criminal law through which a victim identifies an accused.
Meanwhile, it has come to light that the Delhi Police had issued a ‘character certificate’ to the accused driver. According to reports, additional DCP southeast Delhi Police had issued a character certificate to Shiv Kumar Yadav in August 2014.
It was revealed during initial investigations that Yadav had spent seven months in jail in a rape case which was filed against him in south Delhi’s Mehrauli area in 2011. But his criminal record was not taken note of while issuing the certificate.
The controversial company has been struggling with regulatory and operational issues since it entered India a year ago. Uber with operations in over 200 cities across the world, put passengers in touch with cab drivers through a smartphone App.
But in India, it is yet to comply fully with rules laid down by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Besides, Uber does not have a rent-a-cab service permit, only an All India Tourist permit.
The Transport department issues 11 kinds of permits to commercial vehicles. An applicant for a rent-a-cab permit must, among other things, have adequate parking space, experience of the passenger transport business, and a fleet of at least 50 cabs, half of which should be air-conditioned.
