New Delhi: The case against Uber cab driver into the Delhi rape incident will get a boost as the iPhone that was given to him by the cab service provider has been recovered by police. In a related development, Uber's double talk over the verification of drivers' credentials has come to light.
The police have recovered the iPhone that Uber had given to the accused driver Shiv Kumar Yadav. The recovery of the iPhone is crucial because it will help nail the driver who had used it to commit the ghastly crime against the Gurgaon executive on Friday night.
After raping the woman executive, Yadav tried to intimidate her. He dialled his own number from her mobile phone. He told her that he had his number and he would track her, warning her against contacting the police. The victim is learnt to have told the police that she texted a message to her friend with whom she had talked last before the crime had taken place, saying she had been raped. However, in the chilling moment, the SMS went to the driver as his was the last number dialed in the list. The driver read it and fled to Mathura.
Meanwhile, Uber's Asia-Pacific head appeared before Delhi Police on Wednesday. He was asked to furnish documents on employee verification, its database, and documents pertaining to employees they hire.
A petition is also being filed in the Delhi High Court over Uber not having a grievance officer, something which is mandatory for all cab companies. Delhi police filed an FIR against Uber on Tuesday for cheating and not following government orders. All app-based cabs like Uber and Ola have already been banned in Delhi.
In a development which has exposed Uber's double talk, Uber representatives had claimed after the Delhi rape incident that they were only aggregators and did not carry out driver verification. However, in an email reply to customers' query regarding the verification of drivers, Uber claimed the opposite. It claimed that in addition to its individual employers being screened, each of its drivers were put through a rigorous quality control process which is implemented religiously across the country even before a partner gets behind the wheel of the vehicle. "In fact, screening for safe drivers is just the begining of our safety efforts," Uber claimed.
"Unlike the taxi industry, our background checking process and standards are so detailed, often more rigorous than what is required to become a taxi driver. Moreover, most of our partners are introduced to us via our preferred partners which means someone in the system has to vouch for their track record creating a referral system of trust," Uber replied, which is exactly the opposite of what it told the police after the incident.
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