US-based taxi hiring service pinned blame on the 'flawed' Indian system and authorities here for the rape of a woman in Delhi in a Uber cab in 2014.
Investigations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists into the leaked files revealed that Uber broke laws and lobbied governments as part of its global expansion. Over 1.24 lakh files were leaked to The Guardian and the publication shared it with ICIJ. Investigation of the leaked files revealed that the rape case did ring alarm bells in the Uber headquarters in San Francisco.
The Indian Express, an ICIJ partner reported that the case did ring alarm bells in Uber headquarters. According to a report, the company immediately took the line that it was the 'flawed’ Indian system of background checks of drivers that led to the accused, Shiv Kumar Yadav, committing a second sexual harassment offence.
Uber blamed the Indian licensing scheme for the crime and blamed Indian authorities. The internal communications showed that Mark McGann, then Uber’s Head of Public Policy for Europe and the Middle East, wrote on December 8, “We’re in crisis talks right now and the media is blazing…The Indian driver was indeed licensed, and the weakness/flaw appears to be in the local licensing scheme,” a report said.
Uber's services were banned in Delhi following the rape incident in 2014. The services resumed after seven months following legal intervention.
The Guardian reported Uber developed sophisticated methods like 'kill switch' to thwart law enforcement. When an Uber office was raided, executives at the company frantically sent out instructions to IT staff to cut off access to the company’s main data systems, preventing authorities from gathering evidence, the publication reported. The technique was deployed at least 12 times during raids in France, Netherlands, Belgium, India, Hungary and Romania.
