Greater Noida man held for abducting traffic cop during checking drive

A 29-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida has been arrested for allegedly abducting an on-duty traffic policeman, who had stopped him to check the documents of his car, officials said.

The car was suspected to have been stolen and the accused asked the traffic policeman to get inside the vehicle to see the documents, but forcibly took him on over a 10-km-long drive before dumping him near a police post, they said.

"Accused Sachin Rawal had stolen the Maruti Swift Dzire from a showroom in Gurgaon, Haryana, two years ago on the pretext of taking the car out on a test drive," a police spokesperson said.

"Rawal, who lives in Ghodi Bacheda village in Greater Noida, had put on a forged number plate on his car, the number of which was same as that of a car belonging to a resident of his village," he said.

On Sunday morning, the traffic police had started a vehicle checking campaign in Surajpur, where Rawal's car was intercepted for inquiry following an input that he was travelling in a stolen vehicle, the official said.

Traffic constable Virendra Singh had asked Rawal to show the documents related to the vehicle. Rawal asked him to get inside the car and that he would show soft copies of the documents, which he claimed were in his mobile phone.

"However, Rawal locked the car once the constable sat inside and took off. He later dumped the contable near Ajayabpur police chowki and sped away," the police spokesperson said.

An FIR was registered at the Surajpur police station on Monday under IPC Sections 364 (kidnapping), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 368 (wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement, kidnapped or abducted person) and the accused was arrested later in the day, police said.

The car used in the crime has also been impounded, they added.