Cops arrest Loni trio for murder of cab driver in Delhi’s Shastri Park

The trio was identified as natives of Loni in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, who allegedly stabbed to death a cab driver who intervened when they were trying to settle a financial dispute with another man in Shastri Park. Police said the wife of one of the trio was owed ₹17,000 by the man

New Delhi

The accused were held and the bike used in the crime recovered, along with pistols and cartridges. (Getty Images)

The crime branch of Delhi Police arrested three persons in connection with the murder of a cab driver that took place on May 30 and recovered two pistols, eight cartridges and a motorcycle allegedly used in the crime, from Gokalpuri in northeast Delhi over the past week, police said.

The trio was identified as natives of Loni in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, who allegedly stabbed to death a cab driver who intervened when they were trying to settle a financial dispute with another man in Shastri Park. Police said the wife of one of the trio was owed ₹17,000 by the man, from during their days working together at a call centre, and they were planning to abduct him to make him pay up.

However, upon noticing the group carrying a bag of knives and sticks, the man and his friend fled the spot and the trio was confronted by passersby, including the cab driver. “The cabbie, Jauhar Abbas, began assaulting the three men and one of them fell unconscious. When the cabbie turned to the main accused, Akash Mavi, the husband of the woman, and started hitting him, Mavi took out a long knife he had tucked in his pants and stabbed him multiple times in his chest and abdomen. Abbas suffered at least seven stab wounds, one of which punctured his lungs and claimed his life,” a police officer, asking not to be named, said.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Sanjay Kumar Sain said it was a blind murder case because the deceased was a passerby with no previous criminal record or any enmity. His identity was established a day after the crime, but the killers were not identified.

“The team members spent several days and nights doing route mapping of the suspects, activated their human intelligence network, and generated technical information. Through one of the informers, it was learnt that a man from Loni had returned to his residential neighbourhood wearing a white shirt that had blood stains. In CCTV footage, one suspect was wearing a white shirt and his physical description was similar to the man the informer had flagged,” another investigator, who is not authorised to speak with the media, said.

The identity of the suspect was established as Akash Mavi, 24, and he was caught in Gokalpuri area last week, following which his aides Yogesh Kumar alias Bunty, 24, and Rohit Kumar, 24, both from Loni, were held.

Sain said that during questioning, Mavi said that his wife, Riya, earlier worked at a call centre in Ghaziabad. The owner of the call centre, Mohammad Waqar, had financed a mobile phone for ₹20,000 by using identification documents and a credit card of Riya. He promised to credit the monthly EMI amount to her account but when Riya left the job, Waqar allegedly stopped paying the EMI, and the outstanding amount was ₹17,000.

When Mavi asked Waqar to pay the money, he refused and in turn, threatened Mavi and his wife, police said, following which Mavi planned to settle the score with Waqar. Mavi asked him for a meeting at Shastri Park on May 30, when Waqar came with his friend Aman (goes by a single name).

“The three asked Waqar to arrange alcohol for them. Mavi sent his two friends with Aman to bring a bottle of liquor from a local shop. The three left on a bike. On the way, the duo changed the route and accelerated the bike. Aman sensed something was wrong and jumped off the moving bike and fled. The two failed to locate him and returned to Mavi and learnt that Waqar had also fled. In the interim, the cabbie and other passersby spotted the trio with weapons and confronted them,” added DCP Sain.