Uber Technologies agrees to settle civil lawsuit brought by Indian woman
09 Dec 2017
Uber Technologies Inc has agreed to settle a civil lawsuit brought against it by a woman in India. The woman who was raped by a Uber driver in Delhi, had accused top executives of improperly obtaining her medical records, according to a US federal court filing yesterday.
The Uber driver who was convicted of the rape, which happened in 2014, in India was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison.
The Indian woman had earlier settled a civil US lawsuit against Uber in 2015, but sued the company again in a San Francisco federal court saying that shortly after the incident, a US Uber executive "met with Delhi police and intentionally obtained plaintiff's confidential medical records." According to the lawsuit, Uber kept a copy of the records.
The woman was living in the US when she filed the lawsuit. The terms of settlement of the suit were not disclosed in the court document.
The settlement comes as new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over reins in August, is looking to live down several scandals after eight years of CEO Travis Kalanick's aggressive style of functioning which encouraged rule-breaking around the world.
The lawsuit cited a number of media reports that said Kalanick and others doubted the victim's account of her ordeal.
''Uber executives duplicitously and publicly decried the rape, expressing sympathy for plaintiff, and shock and regret at the violent attack, while privately speculating, as outlandish as it is, that she had colluded with a rival company to harm Uber's business,'' the lawsuit said.
In a prior statement, Uber said, ''No one should have to go through a horrific experience like this, and we're truly sorry that she's had to relive it.''