4 dump Ola driver in Baghpat, flee with cab

Noida: Three criminals were arrested on Friday night for stealing an Ola cab.

Akhilesh Pradhan, SHO, Phase 3 police station, said Vijay Kumar, a cab driver working with Ola, had filed a police complaint against four men alleging they had robbed him of his cab after booking a ride on Tuesday night from Trilokpuri. "The criminals had asked him to drive to Noida. Kumar drove the cab for a few kilometres and reached near a CNG fuel station in Parthala village," said Kumar.

The criminals then held him at gunpoint and forced him into the rear seat. One of them took the driving seat while the others held him, said the driver. "The criminals also blindfolded me with a piece of cloth and threatened me with dire consequences if I raised an alarm. On the way they thrashed me and dumped me somewhere in a field in Baghpat at night," the victim said.

The criminals also snatched the driver's mobile phones. Some locals reached the spot and rescued him early on Tuesday morning. He walked to the highway and got a lift in a truck and reached Noida.

The accused have been identified as Monu Yadav (35), a native Kanpur, Meharban of Baghpat (30) and Vinod Kumar Jatav (28), a resident of Meerut.

Pradhan said a team was investigating the matter. "We received information about the movement of criminals in Chhijarsi village on Friday night. We deployed a team who stopped a Maruti Swift car for checking. The three occupants could not produce papers of the vehicle. The police then took thesuspects into custody and during interrogation, they revealed they had robbed the cab from a driver on the night of October 3 in Noida," he said.

The investigation revealed that the car belonged to Kumar. The registration number plate of the car was found to be doctored. Police have also recovered two mobile phones from the robbers.