Lift & loot: 4 acquitted as Gurgaon court says snatched items not recovered yet

GURGAON: A city court last week acquitted all four members of the alleged 'lift-and-loot' gang as investigators could not recover any of the snatched items and the complainant could not identify the accused.

Additional sessions judge Ved Prakash Sirohi observed in his order, dated March 4, that the prosecution failed to establish the accused were involved in the crime. The judge also noted that confessions made in custody were inadmissible as proof of crime.
"No snatched items recovered from the possession of the accused. The complainant has also not identified the accused. Thus, there is nothing to establish the link between the commission of crime and the accused," the court said.
The case dates back to October 12, 2018, when Vipin Jain, a process developer at Genpact, left his office around 9.30pm and was standing at the IFFCO Chowk to go to his residence in Delhi. A white WagonR with four youngsters in it offered him a lift, which he accepted. Instead of moving towards Delhi, the car driver took a U-turn from Shankar Chowk, taking Jain hostage. The youngsters then snatched his phone, wallet, identity cards, and forced Jain to share pins for his ATM cards. The gang withdrew Rs 40,000 from Jain's accounts and later dumped him in the city before fleeing. Based on Jain's complaint, a case under sections 379A (snatching) and 34 (common intention) of IPC was registered at the Sector 17-18 police station.
A few weeks later, police arrested one of the suspects, who led investigators to the other gang members. Rashid, Ismile alias Kala, Shamshad and Ajru - all residents of Nuh - were in police custody by January 2019. Cops said they confessed to their involvement in the incident. All four suspects were granted bail in 2020. During the trial, the accused's counsel Hashim Khan argued that no incriminating material was recovered from the youngsters' possession. "Neither the snatched mobile phone and purse containing ATM card and other documents nor the money withdrawn from the account of the complainant was recovered," said Khan. Public prosecutor Ramnivas Yadav said: "The complainant failed to identify the accused and it weakened our case." The court ruled: "The prosecution miserably failed to prove its case against the accused beyond doubt. Therefore, the accused are acquitted of the charges levelled against him."
Last year in June, three similar cases were reported. Among those targeted was an executive of a private company who was offered a ride at Subhash Chowk.