Asst professor, wife and 3-month-old son held at gunpoint, robbed on EPE

Ghaziabad: An assistant professor who had stopped on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) to check the engine of his car was held at gunpoint by two men on a bike and was let off only after his wife gave away all the gold jewellery she was wearing.
Police said Aksh, a Delhi resident who teaches mechanical engineering at a private college, was headed for Moradabad. He left his Saket home around 5pm on Saturday along with his wife Divyanshi, their three-month-old son, his brother and mother.
When their car reached the overbridge near Masuri in Ghaziabad around 7.30pm, Aksh stopped to check the engine and wipe off water from the windshield as it was raining heavily. Traffic on the expressway was anyway thin because of the heavy showers and the pandemic.
“I was cleaning the windshield when two men on a white Apache bike came from the wrong side and stopped to ask me the way to Ghaziabad. I told them to go straight. They travelled a few metres, took a U-turn and came back to me. This time, the man riding the pillion had a country-made pistol in his hand. He held the gun to my stomach,” the professor said.
When Aksh pleaded with them to let him go, saying he hadn’t even seen his three-month-old son properly, the duo pointed to his wife and asked her to hand over the jewellery she was wearing. She didn’t waste a minute to give away all the ornaments she had and the two masked men sped off.
“I started my car and stepped on the accelerator. After a while, we saw the white Apache again. They followed us for some time and then turned towards Masuri,” Aksh said.
The family stopped at a police check-post in Hapur and narrated what had happened. “The sub-inspector there told me to go to Masuri police station since the crime spot came under its jurisdiction. I reached Masuri around 9pm and lodged a complaint. We then resumed our journey to Moradabad,” Akash said.
The assistant professor and his family have now decided to take highways and expressways only during the day. The stretch where the robbery took place is properly lit and has cameras too.
Shailendra Pratap Singh, the SHO of Masuri police station, told TOI that an FIR had been registered against unknown persons under Section 392 (robbery) of the IPC.
“We are checking CCTV footage from cameras installed on the expressway and nearby areas. We hope to identify the accused soon,” he added.