Italian woman held hostage by cabbies

New Delhi: In yet another case of capital shame, a 36-year-old Italian woman was abducted and robbed of 500 Euros by two prepaid taxi drivers on Tuesday.

The accused drivers allegedly tied the victim and put her inside the boot of the car and took her to Chandigarh. The victim somehow managed to escape from their clutches and reported the matter to the Chandigarh police which in turn informed the Delhi police. A senior police official said that they also received a complaint in this respect by an official of the Italian embassy. Following this, a case of kidnapping cum robbery was lodged with the IGI police station.

“With the help of technical surveillance, we were able to nab both the accused, identified as Nikki alias Raj and Prithvi Raj. Both are taxi drivers and have been involved in such activities earlier also,” the official said. 

According to the information, the victim came to Delhi on a tourist visa and had booked a room in Hotel Hare Krishna at Paharganj. After her arrival at Indira Gandhi International Airport, she booked a taxi to go to Paharganj. However, the taxi driver took her to a fake government tourist office instead of Paharganj, saying that due to elections all the roads leading to Paharganj were blocked.

“The accused told her that the hotel was closed. He also made a call on a fake number to make her believe that her hotel was actually shut down. The victim smelt a rat. She asked for the wi-fi password, which was shared by the accused. She then logged into her Facebook account and wrote a message to her friend seeking help. But it was too late. The accused persons took her to a hotel and pushed her into the trunk of a car. They then drove towards Chandigarh. On the way, they stopped the car and she was made to sit in the rear seat and covered her with a blanket,” a police official said on the condition of anonymity. 

The official further said that as soon as they reached Chandigarh, the victim pushed them and ran away. With the help of some locals the victim then reached the Chandigarh police station and narrated the whole incident. 

The Italian embassy was also informed and one of its officials lodged a complaint on behalf of the victim after speaking to her. The police said that they are probing the matter further.