Agencies/New Delhi


Police yesterday arrested a cab driver suspected of raping a female passenger who hailed a ride with him via Uber, the US online taxi service that has launched an aggressive international expansion.
“The prime accused in the case has been arrested,” Madhur Verma, deputy commissioner with the Delhi police, said.
The suspect was arrested in his home town in Uttar Pradesh where his car was earlier found abandoned. He will be brought before a court in New Delhi today.
The 26-year-old woman told police yesterday that she had been sexually assaulted and beaten when she got a ride with the Uber driver after a social event late Friday in south Delhi.
The incident is a blow to the company’s safety-conscious image. Earlier in the day, New Delhi Special Commissioner Deepak Mishra said: “We have registered a case of rape and have already recovered the abandoned car,” Mishra said.
Mishra criticised Uber over the attack, saying early investigations showed GPS had not been installed in the taxi and mandatory police background checks were not conducted on the driver.
“Our initial investigations have revealed the shortcomings of the private cab company which didn’t have GPS installed in its cabs and the staff wasn’t verified,” he said.
“Our first priority is to collect the evidence in a scientific manner, so that the victim can get timely justice,” Madhur Verma, deputy commissioner of police, said.
Police had deployed four teams of five members each to trace the driver who had switched off his mobile phone since the incident to avoid being traced.
US-based Uber, which emphasises safety and high-end technology, is making inroads in the Indian market including by appealing to young urban professionals.
Women in India, and Delhi in particular, are extremely safety-conscious after dark following a string of gang-rapes that sparked global shock and anger.
The incident comes just days before the second anniversary of the fatal gang-rape of a student in Delhi that unleashed outrage about attacks on women in India and inadequate efforts to keep them safe.
The December 16, 2012 attack on the 23-year-old on a moving bus sparked street protests and led to tougher laws against rapists and other sexual offenders.
In the latest incident, the female executive for a finance company dozed off in the taxi as she was returning home from dinner with friends, local media reported.
The woman has told police she woke to find the taxi parked in a secluded place where the driver assaulted and raped her, before dumping her near her home in north Delhi.
Although the driver, identified as 32-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav, threatened to kill her if she reported the crime to police, the woman clicked a photo of the car’s number plate before alerting authorities, an officer said.
The company said it was working with police to solve the “terrible crime,” while stressing safety was “Uber’s highest priority.”
“Our thoughts are with the victim of this terrible crime and we are working with the police as they investigate,” Uber spokeswoman Evelyn Tay said in a statement.
“We work with licensed driver-partners to provide a safe transportation option, with layers of safeguards such as driver and vehicle information, and ETA-sharing to ensure there is accountability and traceability of all trips that occur on the Uber platform.”
Uber lets customers order and pay for taxis or private vehicles using a smartphone app.
The firm, founded in 2009 and now present in more than 200 cities and in 45 countries, has faced privacy concerns.