45-year-old cab driver killed in Greater Noida; kin says hate crime, police deny claim

According to the police, the victim, Aftab Alam, was found injured in his cab in Badalpur area in Greater Noida, following which he was admitted to a nearby hospital where he died during treatment.

A 45-year-old cab driver who was attacked allegedly by some unidentified passengers succumbed to his injuries on Sunday at a private hospital.

An FIR has been lodged at the Badalpur police station under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery). (HT file photo for representation)

According to the police, the victim, Aftab Alam, was found injured in his cab in Badalpur area in Greater Noida, following which he was admitted to a nearby hospital where he died during treatment.

Police said on Sunday night, Alam, who lived in Delhi’s Trilokpuri area, had first picked up a passenger from Gurgaon through a ride hailing mobile application. The drop location was somewhere in Bulandshahr, and while returning was attacked in Badalpur, the police said.

“A patrolling vehicle that was passing by found the Delhi-registered taxi parked along the Badalpur-Dadri bypass road. When checked, the victim was found severely injured on the seat adjoining the driver’s seat. The police rushed him to a hospital where he died during treatment,” deputy commissioner of police, central Noida, Harish Chander said in a statement to the press.

According to the police officers, prima facie, it appears that upon dropping the passenger in Bulandshahr, Alam, without any booking, had picked some other passengers for Delhi. “En route, they seem to have had a fight and the driver was attacked. The suspects are on the run, and the mobile phone of the deceased is also missing,” the officer said.

An FIR has been lodged at the Badalpur police station under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), the police said. They added they have identified the suspects and a search is on to arrest them.

Meanwhile, Alam’s kin have alleged that he was lynched by three suspects while returning.

His elder son, Mohammad Sabir, said “my father had dropped a client in Bulandshahr and he was returning at 7pm. He talked to me from Luharli toll plaza at 7:57pm and asked to make a FasTag recharge. The recharge was not successful and he paid Rs 120 as toll fee,” he said.

Sabir said that on the way, three people had boarded his taxi. “My father noticed something unusual with the activities of the three. He made a phone call to me and placed his mobile phone by the side without uttering a word,” he said.

Sabir, on the other side, was listening to the conversation. “I recorded 41 minute audio. At 8:39 minutes, the three persons asked my father to utter – Jai Shri Ram,” he said.

Later, Alam’s mobile phone’s battery was exhausted and it switched off. Sabir said his family rushed to the Mayur Vihar police station and informed the police.

“The police traced my father’s last location, as per his mobile phone, to Chithera village in Badalpur police station area in Greater Noida. We rushed to Greater Noida and found the vehicle parked while my father was not there, at 11pm. “The police informed me that he has been rushed to a private hospital in Ghaziabad. We went to the hospital where my father was already dead. He had received injuries in his head and body. We suspect he was lynched by those suspects in a hate crime,” Sabir said.

Sabir said that he had asked the Badalpur police to mention the content of audio in the FIR but the police had assured that they will investigate the audio and add it later.

Harish Chander, deputy commissioner of police, Noida Central, however, said this is not a case of lynching. “The suspects were asking some vendor to chant Jai Shri Ram, and not to the taxi driver. We have identified the suspects through CCTV cameras from a toll plaza and launched a search to arrest them. The suspect had boarded the cab from Bulandshahr. Later the case will be transferred to the concerned district,” Chander said.