A gang of armed robbers in an autorickshaw held a 24-year-old dentist hostage and later assaulted and robbed her of valuables at an isolated location after blindfolding her.

She was reportedly released when she told them that she was pregnant, police said. According to the police, the dentist, who was staying with her in-laws at a high-rise in Ghaziabad city, had left her office in Vaishali and boarded an auto-rickshaw which dropped her near Kala Patthar in Indirapuram around 9pm on March 9.

She then boarded a shared auto to her house.The men in the auto held her hostage and robbed her, police said.

The incident took place on a day “heightened security”, owing to a rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the city.

“She had come from Kashipur to stay with us a couple of months ago and had joined a clinic in Vaishali a fortnight ago. She boarded the first auto from Vaishali and took second shared auto from Kala Patthar (around 9.20pm) in which three or four passengers were already seated. The auto was to take the NH-9 to reach our society. But midway on the route, near Pratap Vihar Ganga water treatment plant, the auto took the new Link Road,” the woman’s brother-in-law said.

According to the woman’s family, when she resisted and started shouting, fellow passengers, who were also part of the gang, severely beat her up. They later tied her hands and legs and blindfolded her.

“She knows some part of the route as she studied at a medical college in Pratap Vihar.The men then took out her ATM card and she started to shout again. She was again beaten up. They withdrew ₹20,000 from an
ATM kiosk,” the brother-in-law said. Later, they took her in the auto to some unidentified location and dumped her there, he added.

“She told them that she was pregnant. It was then that the men let her off and fled in the auto-rickshaw after informing her that she was on the ‘Taj Expressway’. She immediately took another auto and returned home around 11.15pm,” he said.

The family said the robbers spoke in a local dialect but told the woman that they were from Chamoli, Uttarakhand.

The family later filed an FIR at Kavi Nagar police station under Section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) of the Indian Penal Code. Police said it will add relevant sections of abduction and causing hurt to the FIR.

“We have roped in several teams, including those from the crime branch, to trace the robbers. More IPC sections will be added to the first information report. The gang tried to mislead the victim by telling her vague details about their whereabouts and the roads on which they took her,” Shlok Kumar, superintendent of police (city), said.

“But these were tactics to mislead police investigation. We suspect it to be a local gang. The case is being probed on an urgent basis,” he said.

First Published: Mar 12, 2019 03:40 IST