Four men rob cab driver of vehicle, cash & cellphones

PUNE: The Warje police have booked four men for robbing a 22-year-old cab driver of his cash, cellphones and vehicle near Chandni Chowk, on the Katraj-Dehu Road bypass, early on Sunday. morning

Amol Veer, the cab driver, said the men had boarded his vehicle at Karvenagar as passengers. They had asked Veer to take them to a hotel in Sus. However, the moment the cab entered the bypass at Warje, one of the passengers pulled out a knife and placed it on the driver’s throat forcing him to stop the vehicle. They then pushed the driver out and grabbed his cash and cellphones before driving away towards Hinjewadi.


Veer, a resident of Gosavi Vasti in Kothrud, lodged a complaint with the Warje police station on Sunday morning. He has been driving the cab for the past 10 months and the vehicle is affiliated to an online cab company.

According to the complaint, Veer was sitting in his car at a spot near Kakade City, on the Karve Road, at around 2.50am when he received a message on his cellphone. The message said the passengers wanted to go to a hotel in Sus. Accordingly, Veer picked up four passengers from Karvenagar, police said. He drove the car towards the Warje bridge and then took a right turn towards Chandni Chowk. As soon as the car crossed Chandni Chowk, one of the suspects sitting in the rear seat pulled out a knife. Veer had to halt the car.

When Veer got off the car, one of the suspects took his place behind the wheels. The other suspects threatened Veer with dire consequences and told him to hand over his cellphones and all the cash in his wallet. They then took the two cellphones and Rs6,500 in cash that Veer had and drove away. They did not physically harm the driver.

The suspects have switched off the cellphone that was used to book the cab as well as both of Veer’s phones. Though the police have obtained the details of the cellphone used to book the cab, prima facie it appears that the SIM card for it was obtained using fake documents.