Uber taxi driver was longtime criminal

The Uber taxi driver being held on suspicion of raping a passenger in India is a repeat criminal who was out on bail for sexually assaulting a woman, Indian police said, raising fresh concerns about the safety of using the US web-based cab company.

Madhur Verma, a deputy commissioner with the Delhi police, said Shiv Kumar Yadav, 32, has charges dating back more than a decade. Yadav's offenses include robbery, molestation and possessing an unlicensed firearm.

Verma said on his Twitter page on Tuesday that Yadav was a "big-time rogue" in his hometown, Mainpuri, in the poor and lawless state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India.

The Indian government has requested that all state governments ban Uber and all other unregistered, web-based taxi companies from operating amid passenger safety concerns.

The case has triggered protests and questions in Parliament, and reignited an angry debate about the safety of women in Asia's third-largest economy, especially New Delhi, which is often dubbed India's rape capital.

Public outrage has been fueled further by Uber acknowledging that it failed to carry out background checks on the driver and that he was able to obtain a forged character reference supposedly signed by a police officer.

A woman from the US, Nidhi Shah, said on her Twitter page that she had lodged a complaint with Uber about the behavior of Yadav 10 days before the attack took place.

She said in her complaint the driver constantly stared at her in the rearview mirror, making her uncomfortable during the journey. Uber told her it would investigate the case.

"I took a cab with Shiv Kumar Yadav in Delhi on Nov 26th. Scares me beyond belief," Shah tweeted late on Tuesday. "He was staring at me and smiling - made me feel quite uncomfortable."

India is the second-largest market after the United States for Uber by number of cities covered. It operated in 11 cities in India, including New Delhi, before the rape allegations.

The Uber service stopped working in the Indian capital on Wednesday, two days after the state government banned it.

Uber sent a text message to drivers in the city promising to pay all drivers by Friday.

AFP - Reuters