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Delhi Uber Cab Driver Shiv Kumar Yadav A Serial Sexual Offender

Delhi Uber Cab Driver Shiv Kumar Yadav A Repeat Sex Offender
32-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav, center, a driver from the international taxi-booking service Uber, is surrounded by police as he is brought out after being produced in a court in New Delhi, India, Monday, Dec. 8, 2014. The court ordered Yadav be held for three days for police questioning over allegations that he raped a finance company employee after being hired to ferry her home from a dinner engagement on Friday night. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
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32-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav, center, a driver from the international taxi-booking service Uber, is surrounded by police as he is brought out after being produced in a court in New Delhi, India, Monday, Dec. 8, 2014. The court ordered Yadav be held for three days for police questioning over allegations that he raped a finance company employee after being hired to ferry her home from a dinner engagement on Friday night. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

The Uber cab driver accused of raping a 25-year-old executive has been a serial sexual offender and was out on bail in a rape case in 2013 besides being involved in similar case in 2011, police said today calling him a "big time rogue".

32-year-old Shiv Kumar had allegedly raped a woman in Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh last year and was involved in at least two more cases including molesting another woman, investigators said.

Yesterday, it has emerged that Yadav was arrested in a rape case in South Delhi's Mehrauli area in 2011 and had even spent seven months in Tihar jail. He was however acquitted in the case.

"UP police has found that he was involved in at least three more case in the city including a case of rape and a molestation which were lodged in Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh. He was out on bail," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Madhur Verma.

He said Yadav was arrested for separate cases of molestation in 2003, under Arms Act in 2006 and rape and robbery in 2013 in Mainpuri, his home town.

"Accused Shiv Kumar Yadav of Uber Rape case has now emerged as a big time rogue of Mainpuri. His previous criminal involvements in Mainpuri started when he was just 21-year-old in year 2003.

"He was out on bail on all these cased from UP Court when he allegedly committed rape of the 27-year-old woman here on Friday," said the police official.

He also has two cases under the Goonda Act against him in Mainpuri. Yadav basically hails from Elau Police Station are of Mainpuri.

Police today questioned two friends of the Uber cab driver, accused of raping a 27-year-old executive on Friday night.

However, they did not find any criminal record of the two and did not find any culpability on the duo in the case. Meanwhile, police personnel took the accused to Mathura today to recover the smartphone which had the Uber App used during the crime.

Police has already recovered two of the three phones used by Yadav.

"The phone is an important evidence for us. It will prove that he works for Uber which will help us prove the culpability of the cab service," said a senior police official.

The duo, identified as Gaurav and Kamal, are friends of 32-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav, who used to drive Swift Dzire cab at times.

"One of the phones used by Yadav was on Gaurav's name. We had first reached him during preliminary investigation and it was he who had put us on Yadav's trail," a senior police officer associated with the probe said.

"We questioned the two to gather more facts about Yadav.

The Swift Dzire belonged to the accused and Gaurav and Kamal also used to drive the car at times. However, these two (persons) were not registered with Uber," he said.

The AFP reported that a judge banned Uber from operating in Spain, court officials said, following similar attempted moves in several other countries.

Drivers hired for rides via the application "lack the administrative authorisation to carry out the job, and the activity they carry out constitutes unfair competition," the court services said in a statement after ruling on a lawsuit brought by taxi drivers.

Thailand also ordered US online taxi booking company Uber to cease operations immediately for improperly using cars and unregistered drivers, a day after the firm was barred in New Delhi over the alleged rape incident in a taxi plying for it.

"They have to stop operations immediately," Director- General of Department of Land Transport Thiraphong Rodprasert told reporters after meeting officials from Uber and rival firm GrabTaxi and EasyTaxi to discuss regulating Internet taxi services.

Uber -- which operates the premium Uber Black limousine-like service and the discounted Uber X service which competes directly with taxis in Bangkok and Phuket -- bills itself as an on-demand transportation provider.

Rides are booked through smartphone applications or the Internet and paid only via credit card.

The firm was improperly using cars with green-lettered license plates -- similar to airport limousines -- and personal vehicles with black-lettered plates, Thiraphong was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying on Friday.

The drivers were using the cars in a manner contrary to that stated in their registration. He said the drivers were illegally operating by not charging approved rates.

In an apparent reference to Uber, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the private taxi firm was found in violation of payment system norms as the "gateway" was outside the country but subsequent media reports suggested that it has now put a local mechanism in place.

Jaitley made the reference in the Lok Sabha while talking about the need for having a strong payment system.

"In a private transaction, just as for instance today, this radio taxi service controversy is going on. How does a consumer pay for these radio taxies which are currently in controversy? These are not governmental transactions or banking transactions," he said while moving for consideration the Payment and Settlement Systems (Amendment) Bill, 2014.

"Now a violation was discovered that the payment gateway was outside India. So the RBI told them to bring it within India. So from December 1 this year, it appeared in the newspapers that Paytm, a local wallet, has been created by one of these companies, which is in controversy," he said

Uber had faced issues with its payment system. Following Reserve Bank of India's direction, the company has now complied with the norms.

The company had run into regulatory hurdles with the RBI after the latter raised concerns about Uber's payment system including its authentication process.

Yesterday RBI Deputy Governor H R Khan said it had given Uber time till November 30 to comply with the norms and now they are in compliance.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.