Delhi: Driver held captive in cab, cops clueless for 3 hrs

New Delhi: Amid high alert in the city ahead of August 15, an Uber cab driver was held captive in his car and driven around for three hours passing through six police barricades in high security areas like Connaught Place and Red Fort.

On Friday, the Delhi police patted its own back for rescuing a cab driver who was held hostage by robbers. However, they carefully skirted the fact that the robbers had held him at knifepoint and roamed freely around the city, taking him to all parts of the city, including high security areas without being stopped even once.

The driver, Radhey Shyam, narrated his ordeal to this newspaper, saying how he kept waiting for policemen at the barricades to stop the cab for checking. His car was not stopped at any of the barricades while he crossed those sitting next to an armed robber.

The incident was reported on Thursday when the driver was held captive in his i10 car for three hours. “The car was driven through Connaught Place, Red Fort, and Karol Bagh area for three hours. The robber who was driving my car took three rounds of Connaught Place outer circle and crossed six police barricades on the way to Red Fort. Not a single policeman stopped our car,” said the victim.

The driver, who is a resident of Faridabad, was taken hostage and driven around in the city in the same cab for nearly three hours and thrashed by the criminals who also snatched Rs 1,200 and two mobile phones from him.

“I was on my way to a pickup when two youths signaled me to stop the car saying that their Scooty had run out of petrol. They asked me to drop them at the nearby petrol pump and sat in the taxi. The youngster sitting on the back seat took out a knife and threatened me and asked me to not raise any alarm,” said the victim.

The victim added that the robber took charge of the steering wheel and told him to sit on the next seat. The other robber followed the car on the Scooty. Later, the Scooty disappeared. 

His ordeal ended only when they reached near the Red Fort, where the robber driving the taxi asked the victim to enquire about the route to GB Road from a TSR (three-seater autorickshaw) driver standing at a red traffic signal. Seizing the opportunity, Mr Shyam raised an alarm. At this, the alert PCR present near the traffic signal immediately swung into action and rescued the victim while detaining the robber.