Four arrested from Dadri for February 12 murder of taxi driver

Four persons were arrested in Dadri on Friday for the alleged murder of a taxi driver in a car robbery bid in Sikandrabad after booking his taxi from Greater Noida on February 12.

According to the police, the accused — three men and a woman — had booked a Hyundai Xcent car with the driver, 24-year-old Aasif, on the night of February 12 for a journey to Sikandrabad in Bulandshahr and had allegedly murdered him with a wrench. They had buried his body in Gulawati area and left with the vehicle for Etah.

The accused were identified as Mohit Sharma, who hails from Badaun and resident of Rana Colony in Dadri, Sunil alias Tulla, from Bulandshahr who lived in the staff quarters of Dadri’s Saifi Hospital, Ankur, who hails from Ghaziabad and is a resident of Devla village in Surajpur, Mohit Bhati, from Badhpura village in Dadri and Radha, from Etah and is a resident of Govindpuri of Dadri.

The police said all four accused are friends, and have committed such incidents of loot in the past as well.

“Radha and Mohit are partners and it was she who hatched a plan of booking a cab, killing the driver and later selling his cab in Etah as she had claimed of having a contact there who could pay ₹2 lakh for it. They used a wrench to kill Aasif, who was from Hapur and was living in Greater Noida’s Kakrala village. They then buried his body in a sugarcane field in Gulawati and took the car to Etah. The driver’s body was recovered by the police the next morning,” Azad Singh Tomar, station house officer, Phase 2 police station, said.

The police said the accused panicked when no one in Etah purchased their stolen vehicle.

“When no one bought the vehicle, they left it there in a state of panic and came back. We started our probe from there, and through the help of CCTV camera footage and other tips, we were able to nab them. They have been booked under the Indian Penal Code’s sections 302 and 201 for murder and disappearance of evidence, respectively. We have also received the victim’s driving licence and SIM card, along with ₹670 that was stolen from him,” Tomar said.

First Published: Mar 02, 2019 03:00 IST