Uber rape case: Court defers hearing on sentence

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday deferred to November 3 the hearing on arguments and pronouncement of quantum of sentence in the sensational Uber cab rape case in which the driver has been convicted of raping a 25-year-old woman executive in his taxi.

The arguments could not be heard by the court today as the jail authorities failed to produce the driver from prison on the ground that police officials were busy in the security arrangements for the Afro-Indian summit.

As soon as the case was called for hearing, Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja was informed by special public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava that the police officials have been deputed in connection with the summit till October 30 and no prisoner would be produced to courts from jail till then.

"There is a circular by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate that under trials cannot be produced in court from October 23 till October 30 due to the Afro-Indian summit and police officials are not available.

"Due to this reason Shiv Kumar Yadav (convict) has not been brought to court," the prosecutor told the court.

The court fixed November 3 for hearing arguments on quantum of sentence in the case.

The court had on October 20 held the 32-year-old driver guilty of raping the 25-year-old woman executive in his taxi in December last year and endangering her life.

It had convicted him for the offences under sections 376 (2)(m) (while committing rape causes grievous bodily harm or disfigures or endangers life of a woman), 366 (abducting with an intent to compel her for marriage), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 323 (causing hurt) of the IPC and had fixed the case for today for hearing arguments and pronouncing the punishment.

Shrivastava, appointed for conducting proceedings in the

case, has said he would demand maximum punishment of life imprisonment which under the relevant provision of the amended rape law means jail term till the convict's remaining natural life.

The court would pronounce the order after hearing arguments on quantum of sentence.

According to the prosecution, the incident took place on the night of December 5, last year when the victim, a finance executive working in Gurgaon, was heading back to her house at Inderlok in north west Delhi.

It had told the court that Yadav had slapped her several times and pressed her neck.

The prosecutor had said that as per the doctor, the scratch marks on the victim's neck were suggestive of an attempt to strangulate her.

The offence of endangering woman's life while raping her entails a minimum of 10 years rigorous imprisonment and a maximum of life term.

Yadav, who was arrested from Mathura on December 7, 2014, two days after the incident, is currently in judicial custody.

Yadav, however, has denied the allegations levelled against him terming them as "false".