The cabbie accused of raping an executive in Delhi last weekend has two rape and an equal number of molestation cases against him, the first one dating back to 2003.
Police escort Uber taxi driver and accused rapist Shiv Kumar Yadav following his court appearance in New Delhi. (AFP photo)
Even a cursory check of police records could have perhaps prevented Uber, the app-based taxi hiring service, from putting repeat sexual offender Shiv Kumar Yadav on its rolls because the 32-year-old’s criminal past speaks for itself.
Yadav’s name entered the police books in 2003, when he was 21, for allegedly molesting and assaulting a girl in Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh. From that year to 2009, he was booked several times under the goonda act and charged with carrying illegal firearms.
On December 13, 2011, he was arrested for allegedly raping a young passenger at Chhatarpur in Delhi. The girl had hired his cab to take her home from a dance bar in Gurgaon but certain inconsistencies in her statement led to Yadav’s acquittal in November next year because the crime couldn’t be established beyond reasonable doubt.
Yadav struck again in 2013, allegedly raping a girl in Mainpuri. He was arrested after a case was registered with Elau police station but insufficient evidence set him off the hook.
The repeat offender was getting more daring since the law of the land had failed to keep him in shackles. He was charged early this year with molestation and assault of a woman in the Elau area of Mainpuri, where he had already faced eight separate criminal charges. Again he escaped with a rap on the knuckles because of lack of evidence.
But his time was up when he allegedly raped in Delhi an executive returning home at night last weekend.
Sweets were distributed in Yadav’s Ram Nagar village in Mainpuri after news poured in that he was arrested and there’s no escape this time for him.
Women offered home-made halwa and thanked god at the Shiv temple because several of them are either victims of Yadav’s atrocities or related to those who he had terrorised.
Mother Ganga Shri, 70, said the family would not allow anyone to help her son legally. “A mother doesn’t expect her son to commit such a demonic act. In the past, we did our best to bring him on the right path. It is time now for him to pay for his crime.”
Villagers said women dread to come out of their homes after dusk if he was in the village. “He is a compulsive sex offender. You won’t find a single household in the village whose woman he hasn’t tease or molested” said Kushun Singh, a farmer. “I know no less than 26-27 cases that never reached police.”
A police officer said corroborated the farmer’s remarks. “Police had barred him from entering Ram Nagar. Though people are terrified, they seldom lodge any criminal complaint because they believe it would bring a bad name to the village.”
Yadav, the son of an inter-college principal, was a brat since childhood. Villagers said he used to bully his parents into giving him money and expensive gifts.
“Six months ago, he sneaked into the village, pinned down a girl and blackmailed his father to buy him a car. When his father refused, he climbed a neem tree with a noose around his neck ... in a Sholay-like drama. His father relented,” said Tehsildaar Singh, a villager.
Months later, he used that car to rape the 25-year-old girl in Delhi.
“His father wanted him to pursue engineering. He was a good student till class 10,” said Mahendra Yadav, his former teacher.
But he chose a criminal path — drugs, women and petty crime.
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