Cab driver abducted, killed and body cut into three pieces thrown in drain

Mangalore Today News Network

Ghaziabad, Feb 05, 2019 : A 34-year-old man and his live-in partner were arrested for allegedly abducting, drugging and strangulating a taxi driver on January 28, police said on Monday, Hindustan Times reported.

 

The couple had cut the man’s body into three pieces before throwing it in a drain in Greater Noida, police said, adding that they killed the victim, Ram Govind, to steal his taxi and sell it to raise funds to start a clinic.

The decomposed body parts, which were stuffed in three separate gunny sacks, were recovered Sunday following the questioning of the arrested couple, Farhat Ali,34, and his live-in partner, Seema Sharma alias Aseeman Khatoon. They were living in a rented accommodation in Loni near Ghaziabad, police said, adding Ali is a quack.

DCP (northwest) Vijyanta Arya said Govind, a resident of Shakurpur in northwest Delhi, went missing on January 28. The matter came to the notice of the police a day later, when his wife filed a missing complaint at the Netaji Subhash Place police station. The woman told police her husband used to drive his Hyundai Xcent cab for two mobile app-based cab aggregators.

A kidnapping case was registered on January 31.

During the probe, the police said, Govind’s phone was found switched off and his car’s GPS details showed it’s last location was in Kapashera area before the GPS was switched off. The last ride in the taxi was booked from Madangir to Kapashera border. The police scanned footage of CCTV cameras installed around the area in Kapashera. However, they did not find any clues.

“While we were looking for clues, Govind’s mobile phone was switched on and its location was found to be Hapur. We caught the person using the phone, who claimed he found the phone on the roadside on the Delhi-Hapur highway,” a police officer associated with the probe said.

Investigators scanned the footage of CCTV cameras installed at Hapur toll plaza and found Govind’s car being driven towards Hapur by a man, who was accompanied by a woman. They examined Govind’s cellphone and found that the last payment for the ride was made through a digital wallet but the passenger was not the one who had used the cab from Madangir to Kapashera.

“We collected details of the digital wallet holder, Farhat Ali, and caught him along with his live-in partner. They were interrogated, and confessed to killing Govind. They then led the police to the spot where they had dumped his body parts and parked the cab,” the officer said.

Arya said the couple told them they had hired Govind’s taxi jfrom Gurugram to travel home after knowing he had completed the last ride of the day and had switched off the taxi’s GPS. As per their plan, the two took Govind to their room and offered him a cup of tea mixed with some drug.

“Upon knocking Govind unconscious, the couple strangled him with a rope and left his body in the room. After that, they took Govind’s cab towards Moradabad and parked it in front of a temple. They returned to their Loni room the next day and were carrying a cutter and ustara (razor). They cut the body into three pieces, put the parts in separate sacks, and dumped them in the Greater Noida drain,” she added.

The police said Ali, who hails from Amroha in UP, is a quack and needed money to start his clinic. The woman is from Sambhal in UP and is separated from her husband, and met Ali around four months ago.