This Article is From Jan 23, 2015

Uber Emails Rape Survivor to Say It's Back in Delhi

Uber Emails Rape Survivor to Say It's Back in Delhi

File photo: Shiv Kumar Yadav in court.

New Delhi: US taxi-hailing app maker Uber Technologies Inc has restarted services in Delhi after a ban following rape allegations against one of its drivers, but a government official said the company remains blacklisted.

The US-based lawyer hired by the financial  executive who was raped in December said Uber had emailed her to inform her it "has re-entered the market in Delhi."   

The lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, said that, "We had made it clear to Uber that the rape victim wanted to be part of a consultation process regarding safety procedures to ensure that no other person becomes a victim at the hands of an Uber driver."  

Uber's app showed taxis available in New Delhi on Friday. The company has applied for a radio taxi license, a spokesman said to Reuters.  

"They can't start operations," said a senior transport official, who was not authorised to speak with the media on the matter and so declined to be identified. "They don't have a license yet, they have only applied for it."

India is Uber's largest market outside of the United States by number of cities covered. The company said it would introduce additional safety measures including more stringent driver checks, an in-app emergency button and a dedicated incident response team.

"We are setting an even higher standard than current industry requirements," Uber said in a statement.

After a financial executive said she was raped by a driver last month, Delhi's government banned Uber and other taxi-hailing app providers from operating in the city. Uber later said it did not carry out background checks on drivers in India, and authorities revealed the suspect was on bail for sexual assault

The driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav , is being tried in a fast-track court on the capital.

Mr Wigdor was hired by the survivor earlier this month.  Mr Wigdor was the lawyer for Nafissatou Diallo, the New York hotel maid, who accused Dominique Strass-Kahn of assaulting her in a hotel in 2011; he was chief of the International Monetary Fund at the time. The case was reportedly settled for six million dollars.

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