Chennai: A college student was arrested and police are on the lookout for three of his associates who together tried to strangulate and murder a call taxi driver in an attempt to hijack the car. The timely intervention of a police patrol vehicle saved the life of the driver during the small hours of Saturday.
At around 1.45 am on Saturday, call taxi driver S. Murali Krishnan (53), received a pickup call from one Karthick who booked a ride from Kovalam to Besant Nagar. The driver reached Kovalam and picked up Karthick, who was later identified as Mohamed Irfan, along with his friends Niroshan, Kalyan and Suhil Ahmed.
As the cab reached Bethal Nagar junction in Injambakkam, the gang asked the driver to stop to pick up another friend. Two men got off the car and returned after five minutes saying their friend failed to come.
One was sitting in the front seat while the other three occupied the back row. As Murali was wearing the seat belt, the four together tried to strangulate him using the seat belt. However, Murali managed to open the door to shout for help.
A police patrol team headed by Kannagi Nagar crime Inspector Ravi was on the rounds and the team rescued Murali. The police team managed to catch hold of Mohamed Irfan, a resident of Royapuram who doing his BA in Arabic, while the other three members of the gang escaped, police said.
Investigations revealed that Mohammed was not staying with his family after a standoff with parents and he stayed with his friend Suhil Ahmed, who works in a cell phone shop in Anna Salai.
“With an aim to make easy money, the duo roped Suhil’s friends Niroshan and Kalyan for carjacking. They were planning to sell the car in Andhra Pradesh after preparing fake documents. It was Mohamed Irfan who booked the taxi in the name of Karthik and set the carjacking plan rolling,” said a senior police officer.
Police are on the lookout for the other three suspects.
