Ghaziabad’s auto gang abducts, molests, robs 18-year-old on Delhi-Meerut e-way

A gang of armed robbers in an autorickshaw struck for the second time in the three days on the National Highway-9 and abducted a Delhi University student who was travelling to her home in Indirapuram in their autorickshaw late Tuesday. The woman was tied up, molested, severely beaten up, robbed and dumped nearly 7km away on the Link Road connecting NH-9 to the Delhi-Meerut Road.

On the night of March 9, a 24-year-old dentist was abducted in a similar manner, by a gang of robbers in an auto. She was tied up, beaten and robbed, before being robbed on the Link Road. The woman was allowed to go only after she told the robbers that she was pregnant.

The family of the 18-year-old DU student said she was attending a fest at her college in south Delhi and had taken the Metro on her way back home. She got down near Sector 62 in Noida around 10pm on Tuesday.

“We generally go (to the station) to pick her up but she told us she would be home soon as Indirapuram is just across the highway. Then she boarded the auto and then called me. She said something was amiss as the auto driver was taking a different route. There was only the driver and one passenger when she boarded the auto. Midway, two more men got in as passengers but all four finally turned out to be robbers,” her father said.

The auto took the under-construction NH-9 and reached the Jal Nigam exit near Vijay Nagar, the girl’s father said, adding that the driver then started speeding on to the Link Road, leaving the highway.

“After that, when I tried calling my daughter, there was no response. Late night, we got a call from her and she narrated the entire incident. She sent her location to my mobile phone. I and my wife immediately drove to the location on the Link Road and collected her. The gang took whatever money she had but did not take her phone. We went to the police and they were initially caught up in deciding the jurisdiction of where the incident had happened,” he said.

Finally, around 3am on Wednesday, the police lodged an FIR against unidentified men at the Vijay Nagar police station under IPC sections 392 (robbery) and 354 (molestation).

“They beat her up severely. She suffered injuries and ended up with swelling on her mouth, eyes and on her body. We had to take her to a hospital on Tuesday night as well as on Wednesday. The auto she boarded had no number plate so she could not note down the number. The robbers had tied her up during the robbery. They threatened her against revealing the incident to anyone and dumped her on the Link Road before fleeing,” her father said.

Police suspect it could be the same gang who had robbed the 24-year-old dentist on March 9.

“The student had boarded the auto from Sector 62. We have spoken to Noida police to track suspicious persons operating in autos in their area. We are also conducting checks and are using other means to track them. Meanwhile, our teams are working on the first case and more teams have been deployed to track culprits involved in the second case,” Shlok Kumar, superintend of police (City) Ghaziabad, said.