Uber cab rape case: Defence lawyer unwell, case fixed for 4 March

New Delhi: The case, relating to the alleged rape of a woman by an Uber cab driver, on Monday saw another adjournment sought by the counsel for the accused driver in a Delhi court on the ground that the advocate was on bed rest after falling from stairs. Shiv Kumar Yadav’s advocate moved a plea before Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja seeking adjournment of the case for a few days submitting that he has fallen from stairs at his house on Monday and was having back pain and the doctor has advised him bed rest. [caption id=“attachment_2131425” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Delhi Uber cab driver Shivkumar Yadav. AFP[/caption] The court, after taking on record the plea of advocate D K Mishra, moved through his fellow lawyer, adjourned the case and fixed the matter for 4 March for hearing the defence’s final arguments. The lawyer, however, sought the court to fix the matter for 7 March but the judge refused to adjourn the case for six days as the medical record of the counsel showed he was required to take three days bed rest. The court had earlier also adjourned the case as sought by the defence counsel on the ground that he was busy in the Delhi High Court with an application in the same matter. The court is hearing final arguments of Yadav’s counsel who had earlier claimed that the Delhi Police were “hand-in-glove” with the prosecution to ensure the driver’s conviction and that there were several loopholes in the probe. According to the prosecution, the incident took place on the night of 5 December last year when the victim, a finance executive working in Gurgaon, was heading back home. Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava, who has been representing the Delhi Police, had earlier argued that medical and forensic evidence have corroborated the woman’s testimony that she was raped allegedly by the Uber cab driver who had also tried to force her into unnatural sex. She had taken the taxi from Vasant Vihar to go to her house in Inderlok and the accused, after taking another route, allegedly raped her. Yadav was arrested on 7 December from Mathura. 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 trial in the case had commenced on 15 January and the prosecution concluded recording its evidence in 17 days by examining 28 witnesses. The accused had not examined any witness in his defence. During recording of her statement in the court, the victim had identified Yadav as the one who had raped her. PTI