Girls told to stay indoors every time Uber 'rapist' driver Shiv Kumar Yadav visited village

RAMNAGAR (Mainpuri): From all accounts, Shiv Kumar Yadav, the man who allegedly raped a 25-year-old executive in an Uber cab, was rotten to the core. He's a serial sexual offender with charges of rape, attempted rape and molestation against him. Not just that, he was very violent - he had been booked under the Goondas Act, Arms Act, was given to drinking and brawling. Had there been a proper verification of his antecedents, it's unlikely that any company - Uber or any other - would have touched him even with a bargepole.

Shiv Kumar's a serial sexual offender with charges of rape, attempted rape and molestation against him.

So much so that when the 32-year-old visited his native village Ramnagar in UP's Mainpuri district, parents would ask their daughters to stay indoors. He would pass lewd comments, pull duppatas, and if he got the chance, do worse. Some years back, the local police, exasperated by his habitual waywardness, had to extern him from the area - a measure that's locally called "zilabadar" which is more popularly known as "tadipaar".

Ironically, Yadav's father, Ramnath Yadav, was a school teacher, who retired as headmaster of the local municipal school. He's now a devastated man. He had ordered his son to leave home - an order that Shiv Kumar didn't heed. Villager after villager said 76-year-old Ramnath was a good man who didn't deserve the ignominy heaped on him by his son. Shiv Kumar's mother, Gangashree, 70, says she can't face the shame and would rather die.

When TOI visited Ramnagar on Tuesday, local residents said it might be a good idea to go first to the Elau police station, under which Ramnagar falls. It indeed was. In the police register was a string of criminal cases against Shiv Kumar. He has two sexual assault cases registered against him, apart from cases for carrying illegal firearms and brawling.

These cases are apart from the seven months he spent in Delhi's Tihar Jail after being charged with rape (the case fell as there was an out-of-court settlement). In Delhi, police said six cases against Shiv Kumar have come to light and they suspect there are more cases where the victim did not report to the police. Another Delhi woman passenger, Nidhi Shah, tweeted that she had complained about Shiv Kumar to Uber on November 26. Uber said they would look into the complaint. "Not soon enough," Shah added.

Talking to TOI, police inspector at the Elau police station (Mainpuri) G P Gautam said, "Shiv Kumar is an accused in an attempt to rape case lodged under section 354/523 (assault or criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) in 2003, a case of molestation/rape in 2013 under section 376/354, the Goondas Act and the Arms Act."

He said that since 2013, Yadav hadn't returned to Ramnagar, living in Delhi with the widow of his elder brother (whom he married) and their children.