Two members of ‘lift-and-loot’ gang arrested from Mahipalpur

NEW DELHI: Two members of a gang, who would rob passengers after offering them a lift, have been arrested from Mahipalpur area following an investigation into a robbery case registered last month, the police said on Sunday.

The police said they are looking for three other members of the gang who would pose as co-passengers in the cab.

According to the police, the gang mostly targeted passengers waiting for cabs in South Delhi’s Mahipalpur and Vasant Kunj or near the Delhi airport and having their destination in Gurugram. The robbers had kept three-four fake registration number plates in their vehicle, and used to replace the original number plate with the fake one while committing any robbery, the police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Devender Arya said that the duo — Alim Khan (27) and Faizel (25) — was arrested on Friday.

The gang had robbed a man on December 5 after offering him a lift from South Delhi’s Mahipalpur to Shankar Chowk in Sector 23, Gurugram.

Arya said that the complainant had boarded a cab at 8.15pm at Mahipalpur Chowk for Shankar Chowk. When the cab reached near the destination, he was robbed of ₹8,000 cash, a mobile phone and other valuables by its occupants and dumped there. A case was registered at Vasant Kunj (South) police station, he said.

“Alim and Faizel were caught after the location of their mobile phones were traced in Mahipalpur area,” the DCP said. During the interrogation, Arya said, the two suspects disclosed that on the day of the incident, they offered a lift to a passenger from Mahipalpur on NH-8. They took the victim along with them in the car, which belonged to one of the co-suspect, driven by Alim. They had replaced the original number plate of the car with a fake one, Arya said.