Three young men, who allegedly murdered a 27-year-old BPO employee after robbing him of his mobile phone and dumped his body under the Akshardham flyover in East Delhi on March 26, have been arrested and their juvenile accomplice apprehended. The police have recovered the victim's mobile phone from the accused.
Rohit, a resident of Mayur Vihar Phase-III, was on his way back from work at Nehru Place when he was stabbed to death. Special teams were constituted to probe the case and a large number of suspects questioned.
The police found that a similar incident had been reported at the Sarai Kale Khan bus terminal on March 19 wherein the victim was offered a lift and dumped near the Akshardham flyover after being robbed of his belongings. They managed to get the registration number of a vehicle used in the commission of crime. The vehicle was found registered at a fake address of Jind in Haryana.
“We identified the Aligarh-based dealer through whom the vehicle had been sold to a resident of Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh. The owner disclosed that he had sold the vehicle to a person in Kashiram Nagar and it was presently being driven as a cab by one Nem Singh. Further investigations led to the identification of a gang involved in roadside robberies in the Capital,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (East Delhi) Prabhakar.
Three of the gang members, Ved Prakash (23), Dinesh (21) and Raju (19) were arrested and a juvenile apprehended on Monday.
During interrogation, the accused disclosed that they offered a lift to the victim in an auto-rickshaw from outside the Sarai Kale Khan bus terminal to Mayur Vihar Phase-III for Rs.20. They then headed to the Nizamuddin bridge where one of the accused tried to rob the BPO employee of his mobile phone. When he offered resistance, the accused stabbed him in the thigh, dumped him under the Akshardham flyover and decamped with his mobile phone.
The gang members drive auto-rickshaws without a licence, mostly in the early hours when public transport is scarcely available, and target those looking for a cheap ride home, said the police officer.
The police claim to have recovered Rohit's mobile phone, his bloodstained identify card, the weapon of offence, the auto-rickshaw used in the commission of crime and the bloodstained clothes and shoes of the accused. “The accused disclosed that so far they have committed over 10 such robberies in Delhi,” said Mr. Prabhakar.
