‘Told them that my brother was a cop’

NEW DELHI: A flurry of blows to his head had left software engineer Divesh Pahuja profusely bleeding. But he held his nerves while dealing with the robbers, who allegedly kidnapped and looted him on Friday night after tricking him into stopping his i20 car near Dhaula Kuan .

Pahuja made the men believe that his brother was a police officer. Pahuja not only ensured he gave away as little as possible to the robbers, but he also escaped a potential kidnapping bid for ransom by actually pretending to cooperate with the robbers.

Soon after they bundled him into his car, one of the robbers had begun hitting his head. “I told the assaulter that I will cooperate if he did not hit me,” said Pahuja.

When that did not work, Pahuja came up with the idea of lying to the robbers that his brother was a police officer. “The trick ensured that they were less aggressive with me,” said Pahuja.

“When they wanted his mobile phone, he told them that it was not in their best interests as any unanswered call from his parents would cause them to panic and inform his brother,” he said.

When the robbers took a bleeding Pahuja to an ATM booth in Mayapuri, they asked him to withdraw ₹50,000 for them. Pahuja then lied that he barely had ₹10,000 in his account after which they asked him to produce a mini statement.

But since the robbers stayed outside the ATM booth fearing CCTV cameras inside, he was able to trick them into believing that the machine was not issuing any paper documents. He got away by giving them only ₹ 10,000 withdrawn from the ATM.

Later, when the robbers were letting him free in Naraina, one of them asked him if he belonged to a wealthy family. “I think they wanted to kidnap me for ransom. So, I told them I belonged to a middle-class family and had purchased the car after saving for three years,” Pahuja said.