Published on 01:03 PM, October 20, 2015

India Uber driver guilty of rape

Indian police escort Uber taxi driver and accused rapist Shiv Kumar Yadav (C) following his court appearance in New Delhi on December 8, 2014. Photo:AFP

An Indian court has found an Uber taxi driver guilty of raping a female passenger last year in Delhi.

Shiv Kumar Yadav has also been convicted of criminal intimidation and kidnapping, the prosecution lawyer told the BBC. He had pleaded not guilty.

A 26-year-old woman was taken to a secluded area and raped after booking a journey home with Uber in December.

Delhi later banned Uber and several other web-based taxi firms for failing to carry out adequate driver checks.

The company apologised for the incident at the time and acknowledged that it "must do better".

The woman had also filed a lawsuit against the service in a US court, which was later settled out of court.

Rape has been in focus in India since a 23-year-old student was gang-raped and murdered on a bus in Delhi in December 2012, which prompted global outrage and a tightening of the laws on sexual violence.