Road rage turns into robbery

Five lakh rupees looted from west Delhi businessman at gunpoint after he got into a skirmish with three men

Road rage turns into robbery

Five lakh rupees looted from west Delhi businessman at gunpoint after he got into a skirmish with three men

Robbery or road rage? It seems criminals are having a field day inu00a0 the city. In a bizarre case of road rage-turned-robbery, a west Delhi timber merchant was looted in Punjabi Bagh area on Tuesday night.

The merchant Simran Narula, 38, was heading home (W/Z 8/23, West Punjabi Bagh) from his furniture shop in Kirti Nagar, in his Mercedes. Barely 100 meters away from his house, he got into an argument with three young men who were trying to overtake him in a Skoda at around 9 pm. Narula stopped his car as the men started abusing him. But his decision to stop the car soon turned into a nightmare. "It was a decision I wish I hadn't taken," he said.

Beaten, looted
The men abused and swerved and stopped their car in front of Narula's. As soon as the merchant came out of his car, the men started beating him up. "I took them to be hot-headed and ill-mannered young men like many others I have encountered," he said. "I tried to fight them back." But then their attention turned to Narula's bag.

"I tried to stop them as they grabbed the handle of the bag. It contained Rs five lakh. But they overpowered me with the help of a gun and fled from the spot. They also fired some rounds for a safe escape," Narula told MiD DAY.

The cops are still in a dilemma, whether it was a case of robbery or road rage. "We have registered an FIR under sections of robbery and are investigating the case. Prima facie it seems like a case of road rage turned robbery but the investigation is at an initial stage so we can't come to any conclusion. As we received the call we immediately started searching the suspected vehicle on the barricades in the nearby area," said a police officer. Narula also said that the attackers were under the influence of alcohol.

Unsafe highway
A gang of bikers had robbed two people of car, cash and mobile phones on the heavily guarded DND flyway between Delhi and Noida late on January this year. According to the police, the gang of robbers stopped the owner of a Maruti Suzuki Swift, asking for directions. "As he paid the toll tax and moved ahead two people on the bike waved at him to ask for an address. The speed of the car was slow so the driver stopped the vehicle to help them. But the bikers took out a gun and asked him to give everything he had. After taking his car and wallet they also asked for his jacket as it was cold," said a police officer at the site of the incident. But even hours after the incident the victims were confused whether to approach police in Delhi or Noida. Delhi police reached the spot first but later asked the victims to lodge a complaint at Sector 20 of Noida.