Uber cab rape: Cab driver Shiv Kumar Yadav a serial sexual offender, says police; cabbie's friends questioned

The Uber cab driver accused of raping a 27-year-old executive has been a serial sexual offender and was out on bail in a rape case in 2013 besides being involved in similar case in 2011, police said today calling him a "big time rogue".

32-year-old Shiv Kumar had allegedly raped a woman in Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh last year and was involved in at least two more cases including molestating another woman, investigators said.

Meanwhile, police on Tuesday questioned two friends of the Uber cab driver.  The duo, identified as Gaurav and Kamal, are friends of 32-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav, who used to drive Swift Dzire cab at times.

However, they did not find any criminal record of the two and did not find any culpability on the duo in the case. Police personnel took the accused to Mathura today to recover the smartphone which had the Uber App used during the crime.

Police has already recovered two of the three phones used by Yadav.

"The phone is an important evidence for us. It will prove that he works for Uber which will help us prove the culpability of the cab service," said a senior police official.

"One of the phones used by Yadav was on Gaurav's name. We had first reached him during preliminary investigation and it was he who had put us on Yadav's trail," a senior police officer associated with the probe said.

On Tuesday, it has emerged that Yadav was arrested in a rape case in South Delhi's Mehrauli area in 2011 and had even spent seven months in Tihar jail. He was however acquitted in the case.

"UP police has found that he was involved in at least three more case in the city including a case of rape and a molestation which were lodged in Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh. He was out on bail," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Madhur Verma.

He said Yadav was arrested for separate cases of molestation in 2003, under Arms Act in 2006 and rape and robbery in 2013 in Mainpuri, his home town.

"Accused Shiv Kumar Yadav of Uber Rape case has now emerged as a big time rogue of Mainpuri. His previous criminal involvements in Mainpuri started when he was just 21-year old in year 2003.

"He was out on bail on all these cased from UP Court when he allegedly committed rape of the 27-year-old woman here on Friday," said the police official.

He also has two cases under the Goonda Act against him in Mainpuri. Yadav basically hails from Elau Police Station are of Mainpuri. 

With it coming to fore that he had been accused in at least three cases of rape, investigators will try and determine whether he victimized his other female customers as well in his interrogation.

"He has been driving taxi in the national capital since the last several years. He was with Uber during the last six months. He seems to be a serial sex predator who targets alone and vulnerable looking woman. We are now going to intensively grill him whether he had committed similar offence in the past," said a senior police official associated with the probe. Police said that he has not shown any remorse to the incident so far but comes out as scared.

"In the 2011, case he had allegedly assaulted a bar dancer. It seems that he took a sense of accomplishment in targeting woman. If he knew that someone from the family is waiting for the woman or had he heard her talking to someone over phone, he probably wouldn?t have attacked the financial company executive," said a senior police official.