7 held for robbing, killing cab driver in Jhansi

Four of the seven suspects — identified as Rahul, Abid, Sonu and Shivam — had booked the cab on May 26, but when the cab driver arrived to pick them up, they cancelled the ride.

The Noida police on Thursday arrested seven persons for allegedly robbing and murdering a cab driver in Jhansi on May 26, 2021. The victim, identified as Harvesh Singh (35), was a native of Kasganj and worked as a driver with a private cab aggregator in Noida.

The suspects were produced before a magistrate on Thursday and sent to a 14-day judicial custody. (File photo. Representative image)

Four of the seven suspects — identified as Rahul, Abid, Sonu and Shivam — had booked the cab on May 26, but when the cab driver arrived to pick them up, they cancelled the ride. “They instead convinced him to do an offline booking from Ghaziabad to Jhansi for ₹10/km. After they reached their destination in Jhansi, the four men robbed the driver of his cellphone, wallet and car, and killed him. Police found the victim’s body from Jhansi five days later,” said a senior police official, requesting anonymity.

Deputy commissioner of police (zone 2), Harish Chander, said on Thursday, “The driver’s family had filed a missing person complaint on May 29. After the driver’s body was found, his brother filed a murder complaint against unidentified persons at a police station in Jhansi on July 11, alleging that the victim was killed on the pretext of booking a cab. The case was then transferred to us (the Noida police), and we launched a probe.”

Police started tracing the suspects with the help of details of the cancelled cab ride, and arrested Rahul from Noida Sector 62, Abid Khan, Sonu and Shivam from Ghaziabad, and Sudama Dutt Sharma, Shamshuddin, Mohammad Umeed from Delhi, on Thursday. During interrogation, Rahul, Abid, Sonu and Shivam — all natives of Jhansi — confessed that they had booked the cab and robbed the driver of the belongings before killing him. They had a debt and needed a quick money fix. They do not have any criminal history, said the police.

“Rahul sold the car to Sudama Dutt Sharma, Shamshuddin, Mohammad Umeed for ₹50,000, who later sold parts of the vehicle, and the car body as scrap. We could only recover the engine of the car from their possession,” said another police official, requesting anonymity.

A case has been registered against the seven suspects under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (punishment for murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and 413 (habitually dealing in stolen property) at a police station in Noida.

The suspects were produced before a magistrate on Thursday and sent to a 14-day judicial custody.