The driver of an app-based taxi service provider allegedly abducted a 15-year-old student on Friday evening, forcibly kept him in the car, and drove around the city for eight hours before abandoning him at Whitefield in the wee hours of Saturday.
The police, who were tracking the boy after his parents contacted them, were able to reunite the teenager with his family. A manhunt has been launched for the driver who is on the run.
On Friday evening, the victim — a Class 9 student of a private school — had attended tuition in HSR Layout. After class, around 6.30 p.m., he booked a taxi on his phone to head back to his home at Whitefield.
But instead of following the usual route, the driver started heading towards Anekal. Suspecting that something was wrong, he asked the driver for an explanation.
The boy later told the police that the driver had forcibly taken his phone, threatened him with dire consequences and asked him to hide in the gap between the front and back seats of the car. The police are verifying these details.
Investigators suspect that the driver abandoned the boy after he realised they were tracking him.
An abduction case has been registered against the driver.
After attending his tuition classes at HSR Layout on Friday evening, the Class 9 boy called his parents to inform them that he was taking a taxi home to Whitefield.
Two hours later, his parents realised that something was amiss when they couldn’t reach him on his cellphone. When they called his friends, they were told that he had left at 6.30 p.m.
All through, the frantic parents tried contacting the boy on his cellphone. “The boy’s father works as a manager in a private firm. He told us that, initially, his son’s phone was switched off, but after some time it began to ring,” said the police. However, it was not their son who answered the phone, but the taxi driver. “He told them that he had abducted their son, and disconnected the line.”
This was around 10 p.m. In desperation, the parents contacted the Varthur police. “We first tried to call the boy’s number, but he did not pick up. We then contacted Uber to get the driver’s mobile phone and car details,” said an inspector attached to the Varthur police station.
With the information provided by the taxi company, they launched a hunt for the vehicle. They made contact with the driver, identified as Tabrez, on his cellphone. “We told him that we were tracking him. Soon after, he left the boy near a hotel in Whitefield and escaped with the boy’s cellphone,” the inspector added. “We have received definite clues about Tabrez and efforts are on to track him down,” a senior police officer said.
Efforts made to contact Uber later met with no reply
Hotel staff help abandoned boy
Bengaluru: It was 1 a.m. when the taxi driver Tabrez abandoned the standard IX student near a hotel in Whitefield. With no phone or money, the boy approached the hotel staff for help. He managed to contact his parents who arrived at the spot along with the police.
Upon inquiry, the boy told the police that initially Tabrez had driven him on the Ring Road towards in the direction of his house. But he suddenly veered towards Anekal and drove away from his house.
