Police say they have arrested a yellow cab driver in connection with the rape of a passenger last May in Brooklyn.
A law enforcement official also said Tuesday that authorities are also looking at the same driver, Gurmeet Singh, for another rape in September in Manhattan, after a woman was picked up from a bar around midnight. In that case, the driver followed the woman into her apartment and raped her, police said.
In the Brooklyn attack for which Singh is charged, the 26-year-old woman had apparently been drinking at a Williamsburg club and had fallen asleep in the back of the taxi.
When she awoke, her hands were tied with a scarf and the driver was raping her, police said.
He then allegedly stole her cell phone and $20 in cash before pushing her out of the cab and fleeing the scene near Rodney and South First streets.
The victim was treated for lacerations to the hands and face at a local hospital after the attack.
Police charged 40-year-old Singh with rape, robbery, assault, menacing and sex abuse. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Local
He was arrested after police got his DNA from a cup he threw away at Taxi and Limousine Commission headquarters, after being asked to appear at a meeting there late last month. Sources said the DNA was a match.
His father, Dhan Singh, told NBC New York that the arrest was a mistake.
"My son could not do something like that. He is a very religious man with a wife and two children," Singh said.
The TLC deferred all calls about the arrest to the police department.
