Meet Madhur Varma: The Delhi DCP who tweeted live updates about Uber rape case

In a first, Delhi Police got its district DCP tweeting live updates about every development in the investigation of the Uber rape case registering its presence on social media. Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Madhur Verma under whose jurisdiction the incident had taken place, tweeted through his official handle @DCP_North_Delhi during the investigation of the case. Unlike the December 16 case, Delhi Police has been appreciated for speedy investigation in the case and even the father of the victim had offered to give cash award of Rs 1 lakh to the police personnel investigating the case which the officials politely refused saying that it’s part of their job. “Questioning of Uber’s Asia head Eric Alexander revealed that Uber needs major improvements to reach the safety standards what they promise,” said one of Verma’s tweet on December 10 after police questioned the Hongkong-based Uber executive. [caption id=“attachment_1848879” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Madhur Verma[/caption] The same evening when Nidhi Shah, a US-based woman tweeted about alleged indecent behaviour of the Uber rape case accused during her India visit in November, Verma had contacted her on twitter to register a complaint. “@nps2113 A formal police complaint can be received through E-mail also. It is must to set the criminal justice system in motion,” he had tweeted. Since then, police is in contact with Shah for filing a formal complaint. The officer, who has been lauded both online and offline for his efforts in handling the case, got the number of his followers swell to more than 2.5 thousand after he started tweeting about the case. His followers included a number of senior journalists, celebrities and activists. New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi had on December 11 praised his active role in solving the case and congratulated police for arresting the accused Shiv Kumar Yadav from Mathura within 36 hours of the incident. The young IPS officer, who had earlier handled high-profile cases like the maid torture case where BSP MP Dhananjay Singh and his doctor wife were arrested, supervised the entire search operation for 32-year-old accused driver and ensured a professional investigation. “When junior officials could not find any contact number of Uber on its website or through any other source, Verma downloaded the App on his mobile and booked a cab. When the cab arrived, he asked the driver to drive the Sarai Rohilla SHO to its office in Gurgaon from where investigators got the first breakthrough in the case,” said an officer associated with the case. Neeraj Kumar, the then Delhi Police Commissioner, at the end of his term blamed poor public relations for the bad name his force had got for the way it handled the December 16 gangrape case and the subsequent protests. Shiv Kumar Yadav, who was driving the Uber cab, had allegedly raped a woman, working for a finance company in Gurgaon, on December 5 when she was heading back home in north Delhi’s Inderlok area. PTI