Offered lift from Atlas Chowk, exec held hostage, robbed

GURUGRAM: A senior executive, working as manager with a travel company, was robbed on Monday evening by four men who offered him a lift in their car from Atlas Chowk.
Rahul Gupta (33), resident of Azadpur in New Delhi, told police he was offered a lift by the gang around 9.15pm on Monday, after he reached Atlas Chowk from his office on Sohna road, while he was looking for transportation to reach his home. A white Swift Dzire with commercial number which had three passengers, stopped near him. When he asked the driver if he could get a drop till Azadpur, the driver asked him to get inside.

“But, instead of going towards Delhi, the driver took a U-turn from Shankar Chowk. When I asked why he had taken the U-turn, he said it was a mistake and he’d take another U-turn from the next cut. But after reaching IFFCO Chowk, he turned towards Sector 17-18, instead of going towards Delhi,” said Gupta. When he confronted the driver, two of the “passengers” sitting beside him in the rear seat pulled out a gun and held it to his head.

The accused then slapped Gupta, saying “Bahot bol raha hai (You speak too much” and asked him to hand over his bank cards and cell phone. “I pleaded them not to harm me, and handed over my cards and cell phone. They forced me to share the card passwords and enquired about their withdrawal limits,” said Gupta, adding the accused took him to ATMs at different places and withdrew a total of Rs 65,000 from three ATMs, using three different cards.

The gang keep on moving all over the city in search of unmanned ATMs. One of them would cover his face before entering the ATM kiosks, while the other three held Gupta at gunpoint. This went on for two hours, after which they pushed him out of the car near Iffco Chowk at around 11.30pm. They returned his phone but took out its SIM card.

With the help of a passerby, Gupta contacted police. A PCR van took him to Sector 18 police station, from where he informed his wife about his experience and filed a complaint. Following this, an FIR was registered under sections 379B (snatching and use of force), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC against unknown accused.