The suspect, Akshay Kumar, a resident of Bulandshahr, had stolen a white Mahindra XUV 500 on December 6, a day after he was hired as a driver by complainant Dr Manish Mahajan, a consultant nephrologist at Jaypee Hospital.
Mahajan, a resident of Mahagun Mywoods Society in Greater Noida West, told police that on December 5, 2019, he had searched the internet and found the contact number of a placement agency for drivers.
“The service provider was based in Ladpura village in Greater Noida and the firm provided us Kumar as a driver,” the doctor said in his complaint.
Mahajan said the next day, he had to go to the hospital. “On December 6, I reached the hospital and asked the driver to park the SUV in the doctors’ parking area. I then went inside the hospital,” he said.
He said around 5pm, he returned to the parking area and could not find his vehicle. “I searched for the driver and he, too, could not be found. When I called him, he said he would reach the hospital soon. But he never turned up and, later, switched off his phone,” Mahajan said.
Bhuvnesh Kumar, station house officer, Expressway police station, said Mahajan contacted the agency that provided Kumar but did not get a satisfactory reply from its owners. “Mahajan then suspected foul play and filed a complaint at the Expressway police station,” he said.
Based on the complaint, a case was registered against the suspect under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC. “We put the suspect’s mobile number on surveillance. On Thursday, we received information about his movement near Yamuna Pushta road. A police team arrested him from there and recovered the SUV,” he said.
“He told us that his girlfriend was demanding a lavish lifestyle and an outing in a car. Kumar was unable to buy the car and, hence, he decided to steal his employer’s SUV,” he said.
SHO said the service provider had not done a background check of the driver. “The service provider didn’t have any ID proof for the driver. The suspect was produced in the court and sent to judicial custody. We are investigating the role of the agency,” he said.
Prasanta Patnaik