NEW DELHI: A 22-year-old taxi driver was allegedly abducted and murdered after being lured into accepting an offline booking for Jaipur, police said on Friday. His body was later dumped in a forested area in Rajasthan.
The Delhi Police has arrested five people and detained a juvenile for the killing. The investigation so far has revealed that the accused had conspired to rob him after running out of money, police said.
The deceased has been identified as Ashish Pal, a resident of Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh. The matter first came to light when the incident was initially reported as a Zero FIR at the Mokhampura police station in Jaipur Rural in Rajasthan on July 20. It was subsequently transferred to the Sarita Vihar police station in Delhi, where an FIR was registered.
Pal is said to have accepted an offline booking for a ride from Sarita Vihar to Jaipur, a senior police officer said. It was during the journey that the accused fatally assaulted him, before taking away the vehicle & his belongings and dumping his body in a forested area.
During the investigation, police analysed the footage of CCTV cameras installed at the booking point, highways, toll plazas and other relevant locations. Technical surveillance was also used to reconstruct the movement of the vehicle and the accused, police said.
The investigation led to the apprehension of a 16-year-old juvenile and the arrest of five others—Anil Jat, Kalu Ram, Sumit, Mangal Deep alias Sanu and Arjun Rinwa. Interrogation of the arrested accused revealed that they had conspired to rob him as they were running short of money. During the journey, a dispute broke out over the fare and they assaulted the driver before strangling him. They disposed of his body near Mokhampura,. The accused also used the victim’s phone and tried to withdraw money with his ATM card.