A 23-year-old Uber driver and his two associates have been arrested for kidnapping and robbing an accountant with an event management company in Southeast Delhi's Okhla Industrial area.
Chinmoy Biswal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Southeast district said, "The accused have been identified as 23-year-old Rehan Khan alias Cheeku, the cab driver, who drives for Uber and conspired with his associates to rob people late in the evening. His associates were identified as Ranjan Singh (21), who is pursuing his graduation in Commerce from Delhi University and is currently working at an apparel firm in Noida, and Ravi Shankar Sharma alias Bhushak (18), Ranjan's neighbour.
On January 20, Kaushal Kumar Sharma, the victim, was abducted in an Uber cab, moved across South and Southeast Delhi, during which he was robbed of his valuables on knife point and was also forced to withdraw money from his account.
Biswal said, "On January 20 Sharma reported at Okhla police station that a day before he was waiting to hire an auto rickshaw at around 8.15 pm in Okhla when a WagonR taxi approached him and asked for a shared ride. As the occupants of the car pretended to be going in the same direction as that of Sharma's, he got into the car."
"Five minutes later, the two occupants of the car held Sharma captive at a knife point and Rehan drove towards Malviya Nagar. The trio threatened and robbed Sharma of his laptop, mobile phone, and cash worth Rs 4,650. They also tried to withdraw cash from an ATM booth in Malviya Nagar but the victim intentionally pressed wrong PIN to save the transaction from happening. The accused then assaulted him and dropped him at G Block in Saket, before fleeing," said Biswal.
The victim, in his police complaint mentioned the car's registration number as Dl 1RTB 1337, but since he was not sure, cars of similar make with matching registration numbers were zeroed in. After intensified probe, the police team zeroed in on one Naveen Jha, owner of one of the cars who revealed that his car is being driven as an Uber cab and that he had recently hired a driver namely Rehan Khan for the job on January 1, 2018.
"Following surveillance, Rehan alias Cheeku was apprehended from Okhla Mandi. On questioning, Khan broke down, confessed that he along with his two associates had committed the abduction and robbery. At his instance, further raids were conducted and both Ranjan Singh and Ravi Shankar were arrested. It was also observed that although the cab was being driven in Uber, it did not have any company sticker on it, due to which the complainant could not give any string clues in the case," the DCP said.
Accused told police that while Rehan used to drive, the other two posed as passengers and lure pedestrians to board the cab on sharing basis. Once the victim was on board, they used to rob the passenger on knife point in an isolated area and flee, police said.
"Upon learning about the incident, we immediately removed the driver's access to the app as this behaviour is completely agianst our community guidelines. We stand ready to assist the law enforcement authorities in their investigation in any way we can", Uber spokesperson said.