Juveniles who robbed cab for vacation in Himachal Pradesh apprehended

They booked a cab from Hero Honda Chowk to Haridwar in Uttarakhand, and were planning to vacation in Himachal Pradesh. When the cab reached Garhi Hasaru, they allegedly took the driver at gunpoint, robbed him of cash, mobile phone and car

Two juvenile teenagers were apprehended on Wednesday night for allegedly robbing a cab driver at gunpoint, after booking a trip on a cab aggregator service, to get a vehicle to travel to a hill station, the police said.

The duo threatened to kill the driver, the police said. (Representative photo/Getty Images & iStockphoto)

Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said the younger of the two is a resident of Gurugram and is a class 11 student of a private school in the city, while the other juvenile is a Delhi resident who was awaiting results of his class 12 board exams. They are childhood friends as they had attended the same primary school in Jhajjar.

They booked a cab from Hero Honda Chowk to Haridwar in Uttarakhand, and were planning to vacation in Himachal Pradesh, the police said. The juveniles, according to the police, are just a few months from turning 18.

The police said that when the cab reached Garhi Hasaru, they allegedly took the driver at gunpoint, robbed him of cash, mobile phone and car, and pushed him out of the car on an isolated stretch. They were caught when they were trying to rob commuters to fund their vacation, the police said.

The cab, mobile phones, cash and a countrymade pistol was recovered from their possession.

“They were looking for a personal car for the trip and despite attempts, they could not arrange one through friends and relatives, following which they planned to commit a robbery. The juveniles were on the lookout for another target to rob money when they landed in the police net,” Sangwan said.

Sangwan said that they booked the cab on July 26. “Within a few minutes of the trip, one of them pulled out the pistol and asked the driver to pull up, but when the driver resisted, the other juvenile placed a broken beer bottle on the driver’s neck and threatened to kill him. Fearing for his life, the driver stopped the car and the duo dragged him out of the car near Sector 10,” he said.

Based on a complaint from the cab driver, Rafiq (30), a case was registered under sections 379B (snatching using force) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. After scanning footage of multiple CCTV cameras, the police tracked the suspects and caught them on Wednesday.

Sangwan said that one of them has a previous criminal record. “The older juvenile was apprehended for snatching a car in Jhajjar and sent to an observation home. He was released from the correction home a few months ago,” he said.

The juveniles were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and sent to an observation home in Faridabad.