35-YEAR-OLD EXECUTIVE FALLS PREY TO LIFT AND LOOT GANG

A 35-year-old executive of a five-star hotel was assaulted and robbed of his belongings at knifepoint by robbers in a car who offered him a lift last Wednesday night. He was later thrown out on an isolated stretch in Rewari, the police said.

Robberies of passengers on the pretext of offering lifts have been a cause of concern for the police, especially at Iffco Chowk, Shankar Chowk and Rajiv Chowk, located along the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, with more than a dozen people being arrested last year. However, the gangs seem to have resurfaced, the police said.

The victim in the Wednesday’s incident, Ved Prakash, lives at a rented accommodation in Delhi’s Dwarka and works at a five-star hotel near Dronacharya Metro station. The police said that after completing his shift,

Prakash left the hotel and flagged down a private car at Iffco Chowk around 1am on Feb 4. He asked the driver to drop him in Delhi, near the Dwarka crossing.

“When he boarded a white car, four people, including the driver, were already inside. After driving a few kilometres, one of the passengers in the rear seat asked Prakash to sit in between, claiming that he was feeling suffocated and nauseated,” said Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime).

Prakash told the police that after a few kilometres, when the car reached the Rajokri underpass, the two men, seated to his left and right, held his hand and asked to hand over his belongings.

“One of them took out my wallet from my rear pocket and snatched my mobile phone. All this happened while the driver ignored him and kept driving towards Rajasthan,” Prakash said in his complaint.