Life sentence for Rape

Life sentence for Rape

New Delhi: An Uber cab driver was on Tuesday, 3^rd November 2015, sentenced to life imprisonment till his natural death for raping a woman executive in his taxi 11 months ago by a Delhi court.

"Convict (Yadav) is sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life which shall mean imprisonment till his remaining natural life for the offence under section 376 (2)(m) (committing rape causes grievous bodily harm) of the IPC," the judge said and also imposed a fine of Rs 21,000 on him.

The court also directed the Delhi Legal Services Authority to give compensation to the victim and to take care of the family of the convict.

Moments after pronouncement of the judgment, Yadav, his wife, father and two minor daughters started crying inconsolably. His wailing wife also fainted in the courtroom.

The judgment handing out life imprisonment comes  two weeks after the court convicted him in the case. The court had found that there was sufficient evidence against Yadav and that all prosecution witnesses had supported the case against him. The court had convicted him under sections relating to rape, abduction, criminal intimidation and causing hurt.

In December last year,  a 27-year-old woman was raped in an Uber taxi, which she had hired to return home from a dinner party in Gurgaon.

According to the police, the woman had dozed off on the back seat of the car, and she later woke up to find that the car had stopped at a secluded spot. When she tried to raise an alarm, the driver is said to have assaulted and raped her.

The driver Yadav was arrested on 7 December, 2014 from Mathura and is currently in judicial custody.

The Supreme Court had earlier set aside the Delhi High Court order allowing the accused to re-examine 13 prosecution witnesses, including the victim.

After Yadav was arrested, it came to light that he had a history of alleged sexual assault and had five cases of sexual assault registered against him.

After the incident, the Delhi government had banned several app-based companies and had cancelled the licence application of Uber. However, the government act of cancelling the licence was set aside by the Delhi High Court.

Last month, the woman voluntarily ended her lawsuit against Uber in a US court, which she had filed in January, according to a report.  This was after Uber argued that the driver had a contract with Uber BV, a Netherlands-based entity which had no US operations.