A woman’s childhood friend, who had booked the Uber cab for her through a mobile application on the night of December 5, 2014, identified the accused as the driver Shiv Kumar Yadav of the vehicle in which she was allegedly raped.
Ayush Dabas, who appeared as a prosecution witness on Tuesday, deposed that neither the victim nor he had consumed alcohol on the night of the incident and stoutly denied a suggestion of the counsel for the accused that he had a fight with her or had physically assaulted her.
He told Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja that he along with the woman and other friends had gone to Cyber Hub in Gurgaon on the night of December 5, 2014 for dinner and while returning home, he had booked a taxi from Vasant Vihar for her from US-based cab service provider Uber’s mobile application through his phone.
While recording his examination-in-chief through Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava, the witness added that he had received confirmation on the mobile app from the company along with the photograph, mobile number of the driver and the registration number and make of the car.
When the cab arrived near Priya Cinema market, he said he had verified the details and also the face of the accused from the photograph on the app, following which the woman boarded 32-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav’s taxi.
During cross-examination by Yadav’s counsel Aalok Dwivedi, the witness deposed that neither any quarrel took place between him and the woman before she boarded the cab nor had he physically assaulted her. He said he came to know about the incident when the woman called him at around 2 am and told him about it.
“It is wrong to suggest that I had talked to the woman before 2 am or that I had threatened her not to disclose to anyone that I had physically assaulted her. It is wrong to assume I did not meet her after the incident till now as I was afraid she would disclose it to anyone about my act of physically assaulting her or I would be implicated in the case,” he testified, adding that, he was in touch with the woman over telephone.
The court had earlier recorded statements of 21 witnesses, including the victim, who had identified Yadav as the one who had raped her on the night of December 5, 2014 when she had hired the cab and was returning home in West Delhi’s Inderlok.
The victim’s friend also deposed that he did not drop the woman home as it was already late and it would have taken him a lot of time to return to his place in South Delhi’s Vasant Vihar. Dabas added that he had not dropped the woman at any Metro station near Vasant Vihar as the victim’s house was not near Inderlok Metro station and it was not safe. During the day, the court also recorded the statement of woman sub-inspector Alma Minz, the initial investigating officer (IO) of the case.