Four arrested in Greater Noida for killing truck driver, stealing air coolers

Police said the suspects had allegedly shot dead truck driver Ajay Kumar Vishwakarma on the EPE near Chaysa village in Faridabad, Haryana, on February 19. Vishwakarma was transporting a truck full of coolers to Ranchi in Jharkhand from Greater Noida.

Four men were arrested on Wednesday night in Greater Noida for allegedly killing a truck driver on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) during a heist and fleeing with his truck containing 120 air coolers.

Four men were arrested on Wednesday night in Greater Noida for allegedly killing a truck driver on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) during a heist and fleeing with his truck containing 120 air coolers.(Sourced)

According to Noida police, the suspects had allegedly shot dead truck driver Ajay Kumar Vishwakarma on the EPE near Chaysa village in Faridabad, Haryana, on February 19. Vishwakarma was transporting a truck full of coolers to Ranchi in Jharkhand from Greater Noida.

The suspects were identified as Sachin (19) of Ecotech 1 area in Greater Noida, Rohit (19) of Kasna and Gaurav (22) and Satish (20), both from Palwal district in Haryana.

“On February 20, a Greater Noida-based trader with Symphony company had alleged that his truck carrying 120 air coolers worth ₹12 lakh had gone missing on the EPE. Two days later, the driver was found dead in the fields of Chaysa village. We found out that Sachin worked in the same company from where the consignment was dispatched. He allegedly conspired with Gaurav, who was sacked from the army after being convicted of his wife’s murder in 2016, and Satish and Rohit who were Gaurav’s friends,” Vineet Jaiswal, superintendent of police (rural), said.

Police said they got the first clue when Sachin stopped coming to office.

“Sachin stopped coming to office soon after the incident and, later we identified him in the CCTV footage from the toll plaza on the EPE— he is seen collecting the toll receipt. After the arrests on Wednesday night, he admitted to the crime. Sachin said he and Rohit had boarded the truck soon after it was dispatched from Kasna after urging the driver to drop them off at Pari Chowk,” Jaiswal said

He then pointed a gun at the driver and asked him to continue driving. The other two suspects got into the truck from Chaysa village where they shot the truck driver, dumped his body in the fields and fled with the truck,” the SP said.

The senior police official further said the two were arrested from separate locations in Palwal and Ecotech 1 areas on Wednesday night and 80 of the 120 stolen air coolers were recovered from Haryana.

“The accused had sold the remaining 40 coolers. They were booked under sections 394, 302, 201 and 411 for voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery, murder), causing disappearance of evidence of offence and dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the Indian Penal Code,” Jaiswal said.