Delhi: Cab driver killed by two friends for refusing them free rides

Police said the victim was driving his cab back home, when two of his friends from the neighbourhood met him near Sawan Park underpass. The duo asked him to give them a free ride to their home since he was going that way. The scuffle broke out when he refused

In yet another case of murder over a trivial issue, a 30-year-old taxi driver was stabbed to death on Thursday evening allegedly by his friends after he refused their requests to give them a free ride to their homes in his cab. The incident was reported from north-west Delhi’s Sawan Park near Ashok Vihar, the police said, adding that both suspects have been arrested – one after he was caught by the public from the crime scene and the other following police searches the same night.

A case of murder was registered at the Bharat Nagar police station and the two suspects were arrested. (Picture for representation only)

The cab driver, identified as Vipin Kumar, was admitted to Deep Chand Bandhu hospital with stab injuries and he died during treatment on Thursday evening, deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Usha Rangnani said, adding that the crime was reported to them around 7pm from the hospital. A case of murder was registered at the Bharat Nagar police station and the two suspects, identified as Tajim,22, and Pawan,23, were arrested.

During the inquiry, DCP Rangnani said it was learnt that Kumar, a resident of Jahangirpuri, was driving his cab back home, when his two friends from the neighbourhood met him near Sawan Park underpass. The duo asked him to give them a free ride to their home since he was going that way.

This is the fifth case of murder over trivial issues in the past one week. On Thursday, the Chhawla police arrested two persons, including a woman, for allegedly shooting dead 29-year-old Takesh, the son of an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of Delhi Police, for refusing to pay a high interest on ₹2,000 that he had borrowed from the arrested woman, Anita.

On the night of October 4, a 25-year-old rickshaw puller was stabbed to death with an ice pick allegedly by another rickshaw puller after their vehicles “grazed past each other” in south Delhi’s Sarita Vihar.

Just 24 hours before that, a 30-year-old woman, who ran a grocery shop in south-west Delhi’s Dabri, was stabbed to death allegedly by a plumber over the money he owed her for groceries. The woman was attacked on a busy lane in the market and the assault was captured by CCTV cameras, the footage of which was widely circulated on social media soon after. On October 2, a 19-year-old man was stabbed to death allegedly by a group of five persons, including two minor boys, over ₹300 that the man had borrowed from one of them and was not returning.

In another case of murder, two men were arrested on Friday for allegedly killing the 45-year-old caretaker of a bedridden man, the father of one of them, in Rohini’s Sector 3 on September 21. Interrogation of the arrested men, identified as Lovely Verma,46, and Anubhav Sharma,32, revealed that the caretaker, Aslam, was murdered for making some “derogatory remarks” about Verma’s wife some days before the murder, police said.

“Verma developed animosity against Aslam for his indecent remarks and he included Sharma in his plan to teach Aslam a lesson. The duo invited Aslam to a party, got him excessively drunk and then assaulted him to which injuries he succumbed later,” said deputy commissioner of police (Rohini) Pranav Tayal.