The US-based woman who had tweeted about the alleged indecent behaviour of the Uber rape case accused when she had taken his cab during her India visit on November 26 is in touch with Delhi Police to file an FIR in the case but has urged to officials to keep the communications confidential. Nidhi Shah was in India for a week in November, had in a series of tweets on Tuesday said that during her trip in his cab, Yadav had stared at her through the rear view mirror and smiled in a weird way.
Delhi Police has told the woman that an FIR under section 509(Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) can be registered in this connection and that could be done over email as well. “We have told her that she doesn’t need to come to India and an FIR in this connection can be filed over email. We are in touch with her but she has requested that the communication should remain confidential,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Madhur Verma. Delhi Police had contacted her on Twitter and urged her to lodge a complaint with them in this connection.
Under the new amendment, staring is also considered an offence and the accused can be booked under section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman). The Delhi Police has also asked people to come up and complain if the accused driver had ever misbehaved or assaulted anyone. Shah had also said that she had made a complaint to Uber about this behaviour of their driver. She had also uploaded a picture of the pay slip on Twitter when she hired the cab showing the photograph of the driver and the name. “They said via email they would check on him. Not soon enough,” she said in a tweet.
There has been massive uproar on the internet over the issue since the incident. Delhi Police has filed an FIR against Uber charging it with cheating its customers and defying Government orders, has been questioning senior Uber officials for the last three days.
The company was banned from operating in the city by Delhi government on Monday. Shiv Kumar Yadav, who was driving the Uber cab, had allegedly raped the woman on Friday night when the victim, who works for a finance company in Gurgaon, was headed back to her home in north Delhi’s Inderlok area.