Shiv Kumar Yadav (32) the accused driver arrested for allegedly raping a 27-year-old woman executive and working with US-based cab service provider Uber was on Monday remanded in three-day police custody by a city court. The Investigating Officer (IO) while pressing for his custodial remand submitted that his thorough interrogation was needed to unearth details and it will also help in recovery of the mobile phone used by him during the commission of crime.
Yadav, who was arrested on Sunday from Mathura in a joint operation by Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police, was produced with his face muffled before Metropolitan Magistrate Ambika Singh of Tis Hazari courts. North district police has deployed a large contingent of police personnel as there was information that the accused may be attacked before he was produced in the court.
The hearing in the case commenced in a jam-packed court room with various lawyers, scribes and onlookers trying to get a glimpse of the accused who was produced amid tight security. According to police, Yadav was a repeat offender and had spent seven months in jail in another rape case, which was filed against him in South Delhi’s Mehrauli area in 2011.
The MM accepted the plea of investigators for his custodial investigation after the IO submitted his remand paper. The accused refused to undergo Test Identification Parade (TIP), a process under the criminal law through which a victim identifies an accused, saying the girl has already seen his photograph in Uber’s website and she will definitely identify him as the accused. The accused declined to undergo the TIP even after a warning by the court that his refusal may go against him.
While allowing the custodial interrogation of Yadav, whom the police has claimed to be a repeat offender, the magistrate said, “For thorough investigation and as the case property, i.e., mobile phone, is yet to be recovered, three-day police custody is granted. let him be produced on December 11.” The proceedings saw Yadav being represented by advocate from Delhi State legal Authority, Vinit Malhotra, who opposed the custodial interrogation, saying that the vehicle has been recovered and no purpose will be served by sending him in police custody as there were reasonable apprehension that he will be subjected to torture.
However, his request for sending the accused to judicial custody was rejected and the court allowed the plea of police that accused was required to be taken to the places associated with the offence. Yadav, who was driving the cab, 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.