An Indian court on Tuesday sentenced an Uber driver to life in prison for raping a young woman passenger in New Delhi, a case that inflamed fears over sexual violence in the capital. The Delhi court last month convicted Shiv Kumar Yadav of abducting and raping the 25-year-old passenger as she returned home from dinner with friends in December.
Yadav, dressed in a white checked shirt, wiped tears from his cheeks as the judge read out the sentencing, the maximum possible jail term for rape. "He will serve rigorous imprisonment, which shall mean imprisonment til natural death," Judge Kaveri Baweja told the court in New Delhi. Yadav, 32, was convicted last month of four charges - rape, abduction, intimidation and causing harm - and the prosecution had been expected to argue for the maximum punishment of life in jail.
Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava said in the courtroom the sentencing should send "a message" to society "where a person cannot even think of committing such an offence". "She is not the only victim, rather the whole society is the victim," he said, alleging Yadav had a "criminal history" dating back to 2001. California-based Uber was accused of failing to conduct adequate background checks after it emerged that Yadav had been accused of assaulting other women, although he had no previous convictions. "This man has changed," defence lawyer Dharmender Kumar Mishra said of his client, adding he was the sole breadwinner for his poor family.
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