JOIN USA day after his arrest, a Delhi court on Monday sent rape accused Uber Cab driver Shiv Kumar Yadav to three days in police custody.
The police sought his custody claiming that a mobile phone used in the offence was yet to be recovered and the route taken during the crime could be identified only with Yadav’s help.
The defence lawyer argued before Metropolitan Magistrate Ambika Singh that there could be a threat to his client’s life in police custody and expressed fear that he could be tortured. He told the court that the vehicle alleged to be used in the offence was recovered, the victim’s statement taken and the arrest made.
Under these conditions, the police could recover the phone even if he stayed in jail. The court, however, turned down his request and ordered Yadav to be presented in court again on December 11.
Soon after the hearing began, the magistrate at Tis Hazari court asked the accused if he wanted to undergo a Test identification Parade. But Yadav declined saying that his identity could be ascertained with the photograph submitted to his employer.
The accused was brought to the courtroom with his face covered. The magistrate offered him the opportunity of removing the cover, but Yadav refused.
His counsel, Vineet Malhotra, told the magistrate that Yadav would not like to be identified in front of the media gathered in the courtroom.
However, the cover from his face was removed while being escorted out of the court premises for the media to take photographs. Some advocates and members of the public also heckled at him. Earlier, Yadav appeared to be calm in the courtroom as he signed certain papers and discussed in whispers the case with his lawyer.
In a conversation with another lawyer, he was also heard giving some possible names and the facial description of an advocate who he claimed worked at Tis Hazari court. Responding to Deccan Herald in the courtroom, Yadav denied the charges. Police have claimed that the victim’s medical test shows that she was raped.
“I was acquitted,” he responded when this newspaper asked him about an earlier rape case in which he was jailed. He chose to stay unresponsive on some other questions.
At least on two occasions, Yadav said he wanted help from NGOs without specifying what kind of help. Meanwhile, about a dozen members from the Ojaswi Party held demonstration inside the court premises after Yadav was whisked away, but it drew little attention.