Follow us on:   

Rape in cab prompts Uber ban in Delhi
December 8, 2014, 9:22 am

The US company, valued at $40 billion, has come under severe criticism in India after it was learnt that the driver employed by Uber was previously charged for sexual assault three years ago [Image: Uber]

The US company, valued at $40 billion, has come under severe criticism in India after it was learnt that the driver employed by Uber was previously charged for sexual assault three years ago [Image: Uber]

Car pick-up service Uber has been banned in the Indian capital a day after a woman was allegedly raped in New Delhi by a driver of the cab services.

Activists and the Delhi Commission for Women had called for a ban on Uber after one of its cab drivers was accused of raping a 27-year-old woman on Friday night.

The Uber driver had deleted the app from his phone and switched off his GPS before attacking the woman who dozed off on the back seat of the car, said Indian media reports.

US firm Uber in India, unlike its local rivals, is not using GPS systems fitted in the car but instead on iPhones that have the Uber app loaded on them.

“What happened over the weekend in New Delhi is horrific. We will do everything, I repeat, everything to help bring this perpetrator to justice,” Travis Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive officer, said in a statement on Monday.

The US company, valued at $40 billion, has come under severe criticism in India after it was learnt that the driver employed by Uber was previously charged for sexual assault three years ago.

The Delhi Police on Sunday evening arrested 32-year-old Uber cab driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav, accused of raping the passenger.

The ban on Uber follows protests from political and student activists in the national capital over the weekend.

 

TBP