NOIDA: In the fourth major case of carjacking in a span of 12 months, the chief executive officer of a Delhi-based celebrity management firm was allegedly waylaid by three armed men and robbed of his car at gunpoint at Panchsheel underpass on the Noida-Greater Noida expressway in Sector 129 on Wednesday night.
Mohsin Khan, 31, owns Celewish Media Private Limited in Delhi’s Okhla area. He told TOI that he was returning to his Noida Sector 75 home from his hometown in Rajasthan’s Dholpur but had to stop on the Greater Noida-Noida carriageway of the expressway around 9.40pm to answer a Zoom call. It was then that the trio targeted him, he said.
“The three assailants, who seemed to be locals and were aged between 28 and 30 years, suddenly arrived at the spot and surrounded my car from both sides. One of them came to my right side and pointed a pistol at me. The other two came from the left and threatened to shoot me if I did not unlock the car. As soon as I opened the vehicle, they got in,” said Khan.
One of the assailants allegedly thrashed him while another pushed him, snatched the car keys and started driving the vehicle. “They checked my car’s dashboard and snatched my wallet containing Rs 8,000 as well as a mobile phone and a laptop. Later, they returned my phone after destroying the SIM card and the laptop before dumping me on the road and throwing my luggage out of the moving car,” he alleged.
He said that he escaped any major injuries since the car was travelling at a slow speed, “else I could have been run over by another speeding vehicle plying on the expressway”.
Khan said the accused drove away the Honda City towards the Delhi side. “Soon I took out a spare SIM card from my pocket and restarted the phone. I dialled 100, but it took some time to get connected despite repeated attempts. Later, when it finally got connected, a police team arrived and took details. I was subsequently taken to the nearest police station, where I gave a written complaint,” he said.
He alleged that while there were multiple CCTV cameras installed at the spot where he was robbed of his car, police have not been able to track his vehicle so far.
Expressway SHO Yogesh Malik said they were checking the CCTV footage. “The pictures are, however, unclear due to the crime taking place in the night. An FIR has been lodged for loot against unknown assailants and we are trying to track down the accused,” he said.
Last year, Gaurav Chandel, a healthcare firm executive, and Akshay Kalra, a BTech student from Amity, had fallen victim to fatal carjackings. Both the incidents had sparked concerns in the city over safety of residents, especially at night.