Gurugram court awards life sentence to three convicted of cabbie's murder

Gurugram, Dec 1 A court here on Monday convicted three persons of kidnapping a taxi driver, killing him and snatching his car, and sentenced them to life imprisonment, police said.

The court of Additional Sessions Judge Sunil Kumar Diwan also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on each convict, they added.

According to the police, on November 21, 2019, the accused murdered taxi driver Jaipal, a native of Uttar Pradesh, by inflicting slashes on his neck with a blade and strangling him with a blanket. After the murder, they buried the deceased under stones and bushes and fled with his car.

A month later, the police arrested all three accused and recovered the body of the cabbie, who worked as a driver with travel agency in Faridabad, an officer said.

A complaint was filed by the travel agency owner Surjan Singh Chauhan after the cab driver went missing. He went to drop a passenger in Gurugram and never returned. Subsequently, an FIR was registered at Palam Vihar police station, the officer added.

The police arrested three accused -- identified as Sakib Ansari (26), Prince Pal (24), residents of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, and Pankaj Singh (23), native of Almora district in Uttrakhand.

The accused confessed to the crime and were sent into judicial custody after being produced before a city court, police said.

"After arresting the accused, a chargesheet was filed in the court against the accused along with strong evidence and witnesses in the case," the Gurugram police spokesperson said, adding that, the court of the additional sessions judge convicted all three of murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment, besides imposing a fine of Rs 1 lakh on each.