NEW DELHI-
An Indian woman has said she warned Uber about the behaviour of one of its drivers 10 days before he allegedly raped a young female passenger in Delhi.
Nidhi Shah said she complained to the web-based taxi service after the driver stared at her and smiled “creepily” during a November 26 journey in the Indian capital.
“I took a cab with Shiv Kumar Yadav in Delhi on Nov 26th. Scares me beyond belief,” Shah tweeted late Tuesday.
“He was staring at me and smiling – made me feel quite uncomfortable.”
She also posted the response from an Uber customer services operator, detailing the driver’s name, that said the complaint had been passed on to the driver operations team and would be investigated.
Uber has been banned from operating in the Indian capital after the passenger in her mid-20s accused Yadav, 32, of raping her when she fell asleep in his cab on Friday night.
On Tuesday it emerged that Yadav, who is now in custody, was working for the company while on bail on multiple charges including assault, robbery and rape.
Yadav was charged with molestation in 2003, with possessing a weapon without a licence in 2006, and with robbery and rape in 2013, deputy commissioner for north Delhi police Madhur Verma said.
Officials said earlier that a police certificate provided by the driver, which is supposed to detail any criminal convictions or pending charges, was a fake, without giving further details.
“A few of you have said that I should have reported Shiv Kumar Yadav further,” Shah tweeted.
“Here’s the reality — being stared at creepily is SO common.”
The incident has once again raised the issue of women’s safety in India, days before the second anniversary of a fatal gang-rape of a Delhi student that unleashed widespread outrage.
In the latest incident, the victim dozed off in the taxi as she was returning home from dinner. She 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.
Indian police have registered a case against Uber for “cheating” and summoned its officials for questioning over the alleged rape.
The service has continued to operate in Delhi despite an order from city authorities banning it.
It also operates in 10 other Indian cities, but the federal government has issued an advisory to all states asking them to prohibit unregistered web-based taxi services such as Uber from operating.
