Bihar: Car looted from a Delhi man in Supaul recovered

PATNA: The Supaul police on Friday recovered the car looted from its Delhi owner in the district on Wednesday. Two persons, including one Suraj Kumar (24) of Delhi, were arrested.
It was Suraj who had booked the premium cab via a mobile phone based application at Mahipalpur in Delhi for travelling to Balaji guesthouse in Supaul town for Rs27,000.
Suraj, along with three others, looted the car and cellphone from its owner Satpal Singh after reaching Supaul on Wednesday morning.
Supaul SP Manoj Kumar said Suraj's friend Mohammad Sarfaraz alias Chotu (22) was also arrested.
"The car was found abandoned near a petrol pump under Kishanpur police station area of Supaul on Thursday night," he said. Kumar said raids are on to nab the two others involved in the loot.
The SP said the accused had tied Satpal and tried to take him to a secluded place on a bike, but he managed to jump and escape.
"Satpal approached the police on Wednesday evening. Town police station SHO Vinod Kumar Singh said the two were arrested on Thursday noon and later the car was recovered.
The SHO said Satpal belongs to Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh, but is settled in Delhi and owns several cars to run as taxis.
"Suraj's family belongs to Mallik Chowk, Supual, but settled at Patel Nagar in Delhi almost two decades ago. He booked the car with friend Ishtekhar to reach Supaul," he said.
The SHO said Ishtekhar got down from the car a few kilometres before the destination and paid Suraj Rs12,000 of his share. "Suraj took Satpal to the guesthouse and told him after several hours that his friend Sarfaraz would pay. Satpal went with Sarfaraz, but instead he was captured, thrashed and threatened not to come to Bihar again before they looted his car and cellphone," Singh said.
He said a finance firm agent had got an SMS alert and approached Satpal about his three pending EMIs against the car loan.
"The firm's internal software generates pan India alerts. Suraj got to know about this after which his associates posed as loan agents and took away the car. This kept Satpal and police confused for several hours. However, soon after the police quizzed the firm agent, things became clear that the car was looted," he added.