Five robbers stab autorickshaw driver to death in Delhi; 3 held

New DelhiAn incident of robbery spiralled into murder when a 22-year-old autorickshaw driver was stabbed to death when he resisted the attempts of five accused, who had boarded his vehicle near the Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station in the early hours of April 5 and asked him to drop them at Connaught Place, police officers aware of the incident said

New Delhi

Police identified the victim as Suraj Kumar, who resided in Mandawali and was an immigrant from Bihar. (Representative photo)

An incident of robbery spiralled into murder when a 22-year-old autorickshaw driver was stabbed to death when he resisted the attempts of five accused, who had boarded his vehicle near the Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station in the early hours of April 5 and asked him to drop them at Connaught Place, police officers aware of the incident said.

Police identified the victim as Suraj Kumar, who resided in Mandawali and was an immigrant from Bihar. The accused are in their 20s and live in Palwal, Haryana.

Investigators said that the victim remained unidentified initially and there was no eyewitness. “Teams scanned CCTV footage and spoke to residents and vendors. Footage analysis revealed that five individuals had hired the autorickshaw near the Nizamuddin station. Their movement was tracked through multiple cameras across Delhi, Faridabad, and Palwal,” Deputy commissioner of police (central) Rohit Rajbir Singh said.

Police said that after stabbing the driver, the accused dumped him near the Shivaji Park bus stand, where he was found lying in a pool of blood. An unidentified passerby [CHECK] informed the PCR at 5.31am, following which a team from the Kamla Market station took the victim, who had suffered multiple stab wounds to his neck and chest, to Lok Nayak Hospital. He was declared dead, they said.

A case under Section 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was registered.

Police said they laid a trap near the Palwal railway station and waited for the accused for nearly 12 hours, arresting two of them. “At their instance, the stolen autorickshaw and the victim’s mobile phone were recovered. Blood-stained clothes and the knife used in the murder were also seized,” an officer associated with the case said.

Based on disclosures by the two and further inputs, a third accused was arrested from near Sarai Kale Khan bus stand in Delhi. Police said that two more accused are on the run, and efforts are underway to arrest them.

Police said that the accused frequently travelled from Palwal to Delhi by late-night trains, targeting commuters near railway stations and bus stands. “They would commit robberies and assaults during the night, and return to Palwal before morning to evade detection,” the officer said.

Police said that immediately upon boarding the autorickshaw, the accused attempted to rob the driver of his mobile phone. “When the driver resisted, they overpowered him and stabbed him repeatedly in the neck and chest,” the officer said.

They threw out the victim near Minto Bridge and fled with the vehicle and phones, police said.

Kumar’s sister Shilpi Kumari, 24, said that the victim was survived by his wife, who is pregnant, and their one-year-old son. The family had come to Delhi a few months ago from Nagaland.

“My husband bought an autorickshaw and used to drive it in the morning, while Kumar used to drive in the night. He was also taking care of the studies of two of our younger brothers. What will happen to his wife?” she said.