The 26-year-old victim was raped last year.
AB Wire
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A 26-year-old woman based in New Delhi, who sued taxi-hailing service Uber after accusing one of its drivers of raping her in India has voluntarily ended her lawsuit against the company in the United States, according to a court filing on Tuesday. The terms of the likely settlement was not made public.
The passenger, a finance professional, was allegedly raped last year by the driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav, who has a long history of sexual assaults, and is originally from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.
The woman, who was not identified and in court documents appears as ‘Jane Doe’ sued the online car service in a U.S. federal court in January, claiming the company failed to maintain basic safety procedures, reported Reuters.
The case was admitted for hearing in a California District Court in the court room of Judge Laurel Beeler and was scheduled for a preliminary hearing on September 11, 2015. The case was filed in January 29, 2015 in the United States court by the victim through her lawyers Wigdor LLP, New York and Yuhl Carr LLP, California, reported The Economic Times.
The driver was arrested by Indian police and appeared in court in December. He is in jail now. Uber’s Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick at the time called the incident “horrific” and pledged to help “bring this perpetrator to justice.”
However, Uber also argued in court filings that the woman sued the wrong corporate entity as the driver had a contract with Uber B.V., a Netherlands-based entity with no U.S. operations. However, the woman’s attorney had made it clear that Uber was trying to squirm out of its responsibility.
Reuters noted that India is one of Uber’s largest markets outside the United States by the number of cities covered. Uber, valued at around $50 billion this year, has said it would introduce additional safety measures including more stringent driver checks and an in-app emergency button.
In the lawsuit, the woman, who resides in Delhi and was not named, called Uber the “modern day equivalent of electronic hitchhiking.”
“Buyer beware – we all know how those horror movies end,” the lawsuit stated.
The victim’s father told The Indian Express that the mediation between the woman’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, and Uber Technologies, being represented by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher law firm, had been going on for over a month. He, however, denied having any knowledge about a settlement.
“The company had called us to Hong Kong for the mediation process, but we had rejected it. As of now, we have not received any word from Douglas on the development, so it is tough for me to confirm or deny the news. However, Douglas is our lawyer and he has full authority to exercise such a move on our behalf,” he said.