Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], August 16 (ANI): Two suspected criminals were shot and injured during an encounter with the police in the Dankaur area of Greater Noida after they allegedly held two passengers hostage inside a car and extorted money from them via online transfers.
The incident unfolded on August 15 when a Police Response Vehicle (PRV) received an emergency call from a man stating that his 27-year-old brother, Hemendra, had been taken hostage inside a vehicle and was being coerced into transferring funds online.
Hemendra, a resident of Dholpur, Rajasthan, had been waiting for transport near a private university in Dankaur when a group of youths offered him a lift in a car. Once inside, the occupants intimidated and threatened him for money.
Acting on the input, teams from Dankaur Police Station and the PRV identified the suspect vehicle and launched a pursuit. When police intercepted the car near an underpass, the suspects attempted to flee on foot and opened fire on the officers. Police retaliated in self-defence, injuring two of the suspects in the exchange.
The injured suspects were identified as Abhinay Pallav (24), a native of Jehanabad, Bihar, and Satyam Singh (22), a resident of Hapur. Both were apprehended and transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
During the operation, police successfully rescued Hemendra along with another 18-year-old passenger, Naman, from Kanpur Nagar, who had been similarly picked up earlier near Zero Point.
Police seized the car used in the crime along with several items from the suspects: Two .315-bore country-made pistols, two empty cartridges, five live cartridges, one illegal knife, ₹10,000 in cash and four mobile phones.
According to the Gautam Buddh Nagar Police Commissionerate, the duo operated by luring passengers under the guise of offering lifts before threatening them into handing over cash and executing digital transfers. Authorities are currently reviewing the seized mobile phones and verifying the criminal history of the accused to determine their involvement in similar extortion cases across the region. (ANI)
Related reading
