An Uber driver has been found guilty of rape

folarin okunola

October 20, 2015 10:56 AM

Last December, a 26-year-old woman was taken to a secluded area and raped after booking a journey home with Uber.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

According to various media reports, an Indian court has found an Uber taxi driver guilty of raping a female passenger in an incident that happened last year.

The driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav, has also been convicted of criminal intimidation and kidnapping, the prosecution lawyer said, according to the BBC.

Last December, a 26-year-old woman was taken to a secluded area and raped after booking a journey home with Uber.

The Indian capital later banned Uber and several other web-based taxi firms for failing to carry out adequate driver checks.

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The woman also filed a suit against the service in the US, a case which was later settled out of court. The company apologized for the incident at the time and affirmed that it “must do better.”

Rape has been an issue in focus in India since a 23-year-old student was gang-raped and murdered on a bus in Delhi back in December 2012, which sparked global outrage and spurred a tightening of laws on sexual violence.

Just last week, there was also outrage in Delhi after two children were raped on the same day, while a week earlier, another child was raped then slashed with a sharp object, and found unconscious near a railway track.

folarin okunola