THREE HELD FOR KILLING PICKUP DRIVER, ROBBING THE VEHICLE

LUCKNOW : The police have arrested three men on Monday for allegedly killing a pickup driver and robbing his vehicle. The arrest was made by a team of Vikas Nagar police station, police officials said. The police have also recovered the pickup and another SUV used by the accused.

Confirming the development, deputy commissioner of police (North) Raees Akhtar said, “Our teams arrested Sriram Yadav (25), Suraj Kumar (21) and Rakesh Kumar (30) for the murder of a pickup driver Jiyalal, a resident of Amethi, last week. The accused killed the driver, dumped the body in a canal and fled with his pickup truck.”

The police officials claimed that the accused have confessed to the crime and efforts are being made to recover the body of the driver from the canal.

According to police, Jiyalal was driving back to Amethi from vegetable mandi in Lucknow with a pickup full of fruits on December 23. He met the accused at a roadside bar on his way back. “The accused reportedly mixed some sedative in Jiyalal’s drink and when he became unconscious, Sriram drove him away in the pickup. The accused told us that Suraj strangled Jiyalal to death in the pickup and they dumped the body in the canal,” said the officer. Three days after the incident the owner of the pickup truck, one Rizwan Ahmed, a resident of Amethi, lodged a complaint of theft against Jiyalal at Aliganj police station. The police began looking for the driver and the vehicle after the complaint was lodged. On Monday, a police team of Vikas Nagar police station noticed the pickup truck and stopped it in suspicion. One of the accused was driving the pickup while the other two were following him in an SUV. Police have booked the accused for robbery and other sections of the IPC. The accused were sent to jail on Monday evening.