A man was arrested for allegedly killing a 35-year-old taxi driver, the police said on Sunday.
Vikas Tomar and his accomplice had dumped the body in a canal in Uttar Pradesh before fleeing spot with his vehicle, they said.
The matter came to fore two months ago after family members of the victim, Pradeep Singhal, approached Vijay Vihar police station alleging that he was missing along with his vehicle since June 12.
DCP (Rohini) P.K. Mishra said call detail records of the missing driver was analysed and later Singhal’s body was recovered from an area in Gautam Budhha Nagar. The man had sustained head injuries.
In order to nab the accused, who belongs to Bamdoli village in U.P., raids were conducted at several locations. He kept changing his mobile phones and SIM cards to evade arrest, the officer said.
However, Tomar was arrested by the police on July 25. On his instance, the robbed taxi was recovered from Kaushambi in U.P., he said.
“During interrogation, the accused confessed his involvement in the killing. He told police that he was in dire need of money and then hatched a conspiracy with his associate for looting the taxi, which they had hired on June 12. They took the taxi driver to Meerut and then got him drunk. Thereafter, they hit him on his head and killed him,” he said.
The duo dumped his body and took a taxi to Kanpur to sell it for ₹2 lakh through his accomplices, the officer said. The duo would hire taxis through app-based taxi services and then after winning the trust of the driver, they would book the car. On the way, they would kill the driver and run away with the car.
In 2008, Tomar had also looted a taxi in a similar way. Efforts are on to nab his accomplice, the police said.
