1 held for duping taxi drivers on loan-default pretext

A 37-year-old member of a gang was arrested for allegedly extorting money from taxi drivers on the pretext of non-payment of installments of their car loan, police said on Saturday.

A 37-year-old member of a gang was arrested for allegedly extorting money from taxi drivers on the pretext of non-payment of installments of their car loan, police said on Saturday. According to a complaint on Friday by one of the duped taxi drivers, he had bought a second-hand commercial car around two years from a person for Rs 1.3 lakh.

When he was taking a passenger to the RML Hospital and was passing by the ISBT, Kashmere Gate, his car was intercepted by another. One of the occupants approached the complainant and said that he had defaulted his car loan, according to police. On the pretext of sorting out the matter, the suspect asked the complainant to sit in their vehicle and he was taken to Uttar Pradesh while another associate took the complainant's car and followed them.

The driver was told he had not paid the installments of the car loan and would confiscate his vehicle. They even threatened him to beat with baseball bat and asked for money, an officer said. Out of fear, the complainant transferred Rs 15,000 to a digital payments account given by the suspects, who left him and his vehicle in Noida. However, the complainant later got to know that the loan amount was already been cleared by previous owner, he said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Anto Alphonse said they found the details of the account in which the money was transferred, and the team succeeded in identifying the vehicle and the suspect. Bijender was arrested and the car was seized. Out of the extorted amount, Rs 10,000 was recovered and efforts are being taken to nab his associates, the DCP said.

During interrogation, the suspect disclosed that earlier he used to work for recovery agencies and, on their behalf, he used to recover vehicles from those who are car-loan defaulters, police said. PTI AMP HMB.

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