A yellow cab driver was arrested for raping a woman in his taxi after investigators recovered his DNA off of a cup he had sipped water from, police sources said Tuesday.
Detectives had initially suspected Gurmeet Singh, 40, of assaulting a 31-year-old woman in Harlem on Sept. 23 after a witness provided investigators with a partial medallion number, the sources said.
Officers posed as inspectors from the Taxi and Limousine Commission and asked Singh — of Jamaica, Queens — to come in and “talk about a work matter,” a source said.
During the interview at TLC headquarters, the cops in disguise asked Singh if he was thirsty — and he fell for the ruse.
“He was asked if he wanted a drink, some water, and he said, ‘Yes,” said one police source. “He had the cup of water and we kept the cup and got his DNA.”
The sample matched forensic evidence from a crime, but a different one than the Sept. 23 assault.
It matched forensic evidence left at a crime scene on May 6 in which a 26-year-old woman later told police she was picked up by a cab in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and raped at gunpoint by the driver after she passed out in the back seat, police said.
The driver tied her hands, raped her and then yanked her out of the car, stealing $20 and her cell phone , police said.
Singh was charged with rape, robbery and three other criminal counts in connection with the May 6 attack, police said.
“There are other matters that are being investigated as well,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
Singh has not been charged in connection with the Sept. 23 attack in Harlem, but investigators are still trying to link him to that crime, the police sources said.
Singh, a cab driver since 1999, had his TLC license suspended, pending the outcome of the case in which he was charged, a spokesman for the agency said.
His license had been suspended a few times before, most recently in 2007 for violating state Department of Motor Vehicle rules.
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