Noida: Two men suspected of robbing a cab driver were arrested after a brief exchange of fire in Ecotech-I area. Police recovered the stolen sedan and mobile phone. Illegal firearms and phones allegedly used to book cabs through ride-hailing apps were also seized from their possession.Additional deputy commissioner of police (Greater Noida) Santosh Kumar said Raman Sharma (22) and Abhishek Singh (19) booked Uber and Ola cabs before robbing drivers at gunpoint at isolated locations.The men came under the cops’ radar after a cab driver filed a complaint at Ecotech-I police station on July 26. “The driver alleged that he had accepted a trip from Delhi to Dankaur through the Uber app on July 24. Two passengers boarded his Swift Dzire and when they were plying on the Yamuna Expressway, they threatened him with a country-made pistol,” he said. They took away his phone, threw the driver in the middle of the road and drove off in his car.The driver told police that the incident had traumatised and frightened him. Hence, he was unable to report the robbery immediately. He returned to his village in Rajasthan before mustering the courage to file a complaint last Sunday. Police registered an FIR under sections BNS 309(4) (robbery) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation). Multiple teams were formed to trace the suspects. Using electronic surveillance, confidential inputs and CCTV footage analysis, investigators tracked Sharma and Singh to an area behind AMR Mall on the Yamuna Pushta road.Police had set up a checkpoint to stop them on Monday when one of them allegedly fired at the cops. In self-defence, the cops retaliated and both men were injured in the legs. They were then taken into custody and taken for treatment.Police recovered the stolen car and the driver’s Vivo Y200 Pro mobile phone. Officers also seized two country-made .315-bore pistols, two live cartridges, four empty cartridge cases and two mobile phones that were allegedly used by the accused to book the cab through the ride-hailing application.Separate cases under the Arms Act and other relevant provisions have also been registered against the men.Last week, a 40-year-old cab driver was stabbed to death by four people in Delhi’s Krishna Nagar. Police have arrested three people, including a teenager, who targeted the cab driver to rob him.
