Gurgaon: After a few months, lift-and-loot gangs have become active again in the city. On Saturday, a gang allegedly robbed a man of Rs 80,000 after offering him a lift in their cab at IFFCO Chowk, the police said.
The incident happened on February 3 when Ved Prakash, a hotel executive in Gurgaon, finished his work and was waiting for transport at 11.15pm to return home in Dwarka. He has been working as a beverages executive with a five-star hotel in Gurgaon for the last four years.
After waiting for a long time, around 1am, a white cab stopped near him. “The driver asked me where was I headed, to which I said Dwarka mod. The driver said he too was going in the same direction and offered to drop me,” said Prakash.
He then boarded the car. He said four people, including the driver, were sitting inside the car. He sat on the back seat.
“After a while, one of the passengers requested me to exchange his seat with me, saying he was not feeling well. As soon as I shifted to the middle seat, two people took me hostage. The accused thrashed me while the driver continued to drive,” said Prakash.
They snatched his wallet and mobile phone and also forced him to share his debit and credit card passwords with them, an officer said.
“After an hour, they threw me out of the vehicle near Rewari,” he said. Later, the victim found that Rs 80,000 had been withdrawn from his debit card.
On the basis of a complaint filed by the victim, a case was registered at Sector 18 police station against unknown persons under section 379A (snatching) of IPC.
“We are scanning the CCTV footage of the area to identify the accused and vehicle used in the crime,” said police spokesperson Subhash Boken, adding that the police have been urg-ing people to not take a lift from strangers.
The gang targets people waiting for transport on Delhi-Gurgaon expressway in late evening hours, an officer said. Multiple incidents of lift and loot were reported last year on the same stretch. The police had busted most of the gangs and this was the first incident in the past several months. “A new lift-and-loot gang seem to have become active,” said a senior officer, adding that soon they will track this gang as well.