Police officials escort Shiv Kumar Yadav outside a court in New Delhi (AFP photo)
Uber, the app that allows users to hail taxis, has been banned by the Delhi government after one of its drivers was arrested for rape.
Here are the latest developments to this story
The arrested driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav, appeared in court on Monday and was remanded in custody for three days. He allegedly raped a woman passenger on Friday.
He was also arrested in 2011 and jailed for seven months on charges of raping a woman but was later acquitted, the police said.
A certificate declaring that he had no criminal record, meant to be issued by the police, was allegedly forged. This certificate was submitted to the transport department to get Yadav a permit to run his taxi.
The Delhi Police is now trying to determine who forged the certificate.
Uber executives have reportedly told the police today that the company does not run independent background checks on drivers; documents submitted by drivers are not verified.
"Keeping in view the violation and the horrific crime committed by the driver, the transport department has banned all activities relating to providing any transport service by the uber.com," special commissioner Kuldeep Singh Gangar said.
The Delhi police says that Uber appears to have ignored the standard procedures for private cab services in the city. For example, GPS had not been installed in the taxi. Uber tracks its drivers through an app, but the driver just has to switch off the phone to disappear off the map.
Yadav, 32, has allegedly confessed that he drove the woman to an isolated part of the capital after he saw her sleeping in the car. After the sexual assault, he drove toward the woman's neighbourhood in North Delhi and abandoned her on the road, he has reportedly said in his confession.
A statement by Uber CEO Travis seemed to put the blame partly on Indian authorities. "We will work with the government to establish clear background checks currently absent in their commercial transportation licensing programs," he said.
Yadav, who was signed on by Uber six months ago, was arrested in his village in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday evening. He had abandoned the taxi he owned a day before that.
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