The special fast track court which convicted former Uber cab driver Shiv Kumar Yadav of rape has stated in its judgment that “in the light of the testimony” of the victim “coupled” with the DNA analysis “there is no room for doubt” he committed rape.
Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja further stated the victim’s “threat perception” was “very much in real” — referring to her testimony that Yadav “threatened” he would insert a ‘saria’ (rod) inside her body.
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“She was reminded of gang rape of 16th December, 2012, and thus the perception was very much real,” said the court.
“To my mind, the testimony of the prosecutrix (victim) that accused forcibly committed sexual intercourse with her and even attempted to do unnatural sex with her is completely fortified by the scientific evidence by way of DNA examination report,” the fast-track court said.
The court had convicted Yadav on Tuesday on charges of rape and endangering the life of the victim.
It also said there was “sufficient material to hold” that Yadav beat the victim and caused injuries during the commission of offence of rape.
The court said the call detail records of the victim “establishes” the “truthfulness of testimony” of the woman and “falsity of claim” of the convict.
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The court, however, agreed with the defence argument that representative of Uber company is “not a competent witness” to prove the GPS map to indicate the place of the rape incident.
“The defence contended that GPS maps do not indicate the place of alleged incident. Moreover, prosecution witness 28 (Alexander) was not the competent witness to prove these maps and prosecution should have summoned the concerned official from Google to prove the same,” the court said.
The Uber official had earlier deposed before the court that per his company records, the cab was booked by the victim’s friend from the Uber app on his mobile phone to go from Vasant Vihar and the journey ended in Zakhira past midnight.
He had added that Yadav was the registered owner of the car and was operating with the cab as driver partner with their company and had supported the details of satellite imagery of GPS route followed by him during the journey.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
