Uber cab rape case: Accused claims innocence, cites discrepancy

New Delhi: A cab driver, facing trial for allegedly raping a woman in his car, on Saturday claimed in a Delhi court that there were several discrepancies in the prosecution case and the statements of the victim about the incident.

Continuing final arguments in the case, counsel appearing for accused driver Shiv Kumar Yadav alleged that the woman was lying and there were "falsification and manufacturing" of documents by the prosecution to prove its case.

"While the woman in her statement said the police reached the spot 5-10 minutes after she made a call to PCR, the police record showed that till half an hour, PCR officials had not reached the spot as they could not locate it and this is by their own admission. Police found the spot after over an hour," Yadav's counsel DK Mishra told Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja.

He also said despite knowing the name of the accused driver, the woman did not state it in the PCR call or in FIR and gave another name to the police.

"FIR names a wrong person. The woman said she later on came to know about the name of accused through Truecaller application in her mobile phone. But her friend who had booked the cab for her had all the details of the driver including his name and why she did not call him," he argued.

The counsel also alleged that everything was done with meticulous planning.

Earlier, he had claimed that police manipulated documents to implicate Yadav in a "well-planned and planted" case.

He had claimed that his client was not there at the time of the alleged incident and police has deliberately concealed the location chart of the victim's mobile phone to implicate him.

Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava, while advancing final arguments, had earlier said an accused can be convicted on the basis of sole testimony of the victim if it is trustworthy.

According to the prosecution, the incident took place on the night of December 5 last year when the 25-year-old victim, a finance executive working in Gurgaon, was heading back home.

Police had said the woman had taken the taxi from Vasant Vihar to return to her house in Inderlok area in north Delhi but accused Shiv Kumar Yadav took another route and allegedly raped her. Yadav was arrested on December 7, 2014 from Mathura and is presently under judicial custody.

The court has framed charges against Yadav under IPC for alleged offences of endangering a woman's life while raping her, abducting with an intent to compel her for marriage and criminally intimidating and causing hurt.

The court had also recorded the testimony of the accused in which he termed the charge against him as "false".