Uber 'warned' about Delhi driver accused of rape

A woman complained to Uber taxi service after the alleged rapist stared at her and smiled 'creepily' when she took his cab on November 26 in the Indian capital.

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,” Ms Shah tweeted on Tuesday.

“He was staring at me and smiling — made me feel quite uncomfortable.”

Ms Shah told the NDTV news channel she felt she should report the driver to the company.

“I had a bad feeling about him,” she said.

US-based Uber has been banned from operating in Delhi after the passenger in her mid-20s accused Mr Yadav, 32, of raping her when she fell asleep in his cab on Friday night.

On Tuesday it emerged that Mr Yadav, who is now in custody, was working for the company while on bail on multiple charges including assault, robbery and rape.

Mr 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.

India has been struggling to overcome a reputation for sexual violence since the fatal gang-rape of a student in Delhi in December 2012.

* Agence France-Presse