Teen, 5 others killed Ola cabbie to buy branded clothes

NEW DELHI: Almost a week after an Ola cab driver was found dead in an empty plot in outer Delhi’s Alipur, cops have nabbed six youths, one of whom is a teenager, for killing him. The accused wanted to sell the cab to buy branded clothes and pull their families out of poverty.
The accused have been identified as Rahul Saini (21), Naveen (25), Hemant (19), Amit Dahiyar alias Bunty (25), Vishal (20) and a juvenile. They are all first-time offenders. Police have recovered the cab and seized three country-made pistols and six live cartridges from the accused.

Last Friday, cops at Alipur police station were informed about an unidentified man’s body lying in an open plot behind Khampur radio station. DCP (Rohini) Rajneesh Gupta said that the victim was identified as Hari Narayan (35), a resident of Sector 45 in Noida, with the help of a mark on his shirt. His family members were informed and the body was sent for autopsy.

The post-mortem report stated ligature strangulation as the cause of Narayan’s death after which a murder case was registered at Alipur police station. A team led by SHO (Alipur) Suresh Kumar scanned the GPS data and found that the car had moved around in Narela, Nahri, Bankner and Kheri Manjat villages of Sonipat. The car was last seen in Nahri village.

Early on Thursday, Rahul, Naveen and Hemant were nabbed from Narela. They disclosed the names of their associates, Amit and Vishal, apart from the 17-year-old youth, who were subsequently apprehended.

The youths told police that Rahul, Naveen, Hemant and Bunty were childhood friends. They were unemployed and needed money. They soon formed a gang and bought three country-made pistols from Moradabad in UP.

On March 23, Naveen booked an Ola cab from his phone for Kashmere Gate. They called the driver, Narayan, and as soon as the cab reached they cancelled the trip assuming they wouldn’t get tracked in this manner. They then boarded the cab and forced Narayan to drive around at gunpoint.

“They overpowered Narayan after reaching an abandoned area behind Tikri village and strangled him with a gamchha (scarf). They drove around with his body for a few kilometres and threw out the body in the open plot behind Khampur radio station. They removed the kit provided by Ola to make the cab difficult to detect. They then tried to find a way to sell the car,” DCP Gupta said.