Uber banned in Delhi after driver accused of rape

Global rideshare service Uber has been banned in India's capital following the alleged rape of a passenger by one of its drivers.

The Delhi city government said on Monday it had Uber would no longer be allowed to operate after a finance executive accused one of the online taxi service's drivers of sexually assaulting her on Friday. The passenger said she had fell asleep in the vehicle after which the driver took the taxi to a secluded spot and raped her.

"The Transport Department has banned all activities relating to providing any transport service by the www.Uber.com with immediate effect," city officials said in a statement. The car service currently operates in a number of other Indian cities, including Chennai, Bangalore and Jaipur.

The development comes amid continued scrutiny on sexual violence against women in India.

A woman is raped in the country once roughly every twenty minutes, according to government statistics. The vast majority of reported rapes — 98 percent — are committed by someone the victim knows.

The fatal gang rape of a student on a moving bus in India’s capital, New Delhi, in December 2012 sparked outrage among Indians about the high number of attacks on women and inadequate efforts to keep them safe.

The nationwide outcry led the government to rush through legislation, doubling prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalizing voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women.

The law also made it a crime for officers to refuse to open cases when complaints are filed.

Uber, which launched in U.S. in 2009, says it is now active in more than 250 cities worldwide. As of June 2014, the company was valued at roughly $17 billion.

However, Uber has run into some legal and public relations trouble in some of the regions where it operates. Germany banned the Uber service earlier this year over licensing issues, and the state of Nevada has imposed a temporary injunction on it for allegedly failing to sufficiently screen drivers.

Furthermore, the Netherlands on Monday ordered the company to stop providing its service known as UberPop, which a trade tribunal ruled broke a law requiring that drivers be issued special permits. Uber has said it will appeal the decision.

Uber also faced controversy last month after an executive reportedly floated the idea of targeting the “personal lives” of journalists who are critical of the company.

Al Jazeera and Reuters