Businessman abducted in car, robbed of ₹2 lakh, valuables

A 38-year-old businessman was abducted in his car at gunpoint from Shalimar Bagh in northwest Delhi, assaulted, and robbed of cash and valuables before being dumped at a secluded place in outer Delhi’s Bawana five hours later, police officers said on Wednesday, adding that they have arrested five people in connection with the case.

Police identified the mastermind of the case as Keshav Sharma, 25, who was in need of money after suffering losses in his car dealership as well as in his garment trading business. He contacted the victim, Puneeet Khetarpal, through a social networking site on Friday and met him the same evening, ostensibly to discuss a business deal, when Sharma’s four associates forcibly entered Khetarpal’s Kia Sonet car after showing them guns, and assaulted them, a police officer associated with the case said.

“Assaulting Sharma along with the businessman was part of the plan, as Sharma wanted to project himself as a victim and avoid Khetrapal’s suspicion about his involvement in the crime. After the assault, the four men threw him out of the car before pinning down Khetrapal and driving away,” said the officer.

Deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Jitendra Kumar Meena said that around 3am on Saturday, the Shalimar Bagh police station received information about a man’s abduction and robbery from near the Outer Ring Road flyover in Shalimar Bagh. A police team met the caller, who identified himself as Puneet Khetrapal, running a transport business. Khetrapal told the police that around 9pm on Friday, he was returning home in his car with a person whom he had met for a business deal when the abduction occurred.

A second officer, declining to be named, said as per Khetrapal’s complaint, the four men assaulted him while driving the car on various approach roads where police were not present. They robbed him of his iPhone, a wristwatch, a gold bracelet, and his wallet containing ₹6,000 cash and an ATM card.

According to the complaint, the assailants then forced Khetrapal to reveal his ATM pin, and after driving around Rohini, Prahladpur and other places in outer Delhi for nearly five hours, he was dumped in the Bawana area. Khetrapal later received messages alerting him about the withdrawal of ₹2 lakh from his account in multiple transactions, the second officer said.

DCP Meena said that a case of kidnapping, assault and robbery was registered, and multiple teams were formed to identify and nab the suspects. Investigators scanned CCTV cameras of the place where Khetrapal was abducted and of the routes where the suspects drove the vehicle. Through technical and manual intelligence gathering, the suspects were identified and one of them, identified as Mohammad Hussain, 22, was arrested from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.

“His interrogation led to the identification and arrest of the other three suspects — Deepak ,19, Pradeep, 19, and Vipin, 18, and the mastermind, Keshav Sharma from Delhi. Two country-made pistols and two motorcycles used in the crime were recovered along with ₹91,000 cash and the stolen iPhone,” added Meena.