Indian Uber driver gets life in prison for Delhi rape

A court in India has sentenced an Uber driver to life in prison for raping a female passenger in New Delhi last year.

Driver Shiv Kumar Yadav, 32, “will serve regressive imprisonment, which shall mean imprisonment until natural death”, Judge Kaveri Baweja ruled on Tuesday.

Yadav was convicted on four charges last month but sentencing was delayed because of a shortage of police in the Indian capital, where a summit of African leaders was being held at the time. He had pleaded not guilty.

The victim, a 25-year-old finance executive, was assaulted while travelling from her workplace in Gurgaon, a suburb of Delhi, to her home in the north of the city.

The high-profile case sparked fresh safety fears in a city hit by sexual violence.

Attacks on women, including sexual violence, has been a focus of public attention in India since the fatal gang rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012, which triggered mass protests.

Uber was banned from operating in Delhi in the aftermath of the December 5 attack. It resumed operations in the capital earlier this year.