Doon cabdriver robbed Delhi couple, threw them off cliff

DEHRADUN: Eighteen days after a Delhi couple Moumita Das, 27, and Avijit Paul, 24, mysteriously went missing from the hills of Uttarakhand, a cab driver has confessed that he robbed the two and threw them to their death, down a steep cliff.
On Monday, the Dehradun police broke the news to their kin that the driver they had paid to take them around Uttarakhand, Raju Das, had murdered the pair with the help of three friends.They fell hundreds of feet to the ground.
The couple lived in a rented house in south Delhi’s Lado Sarai. Moumita taught at Gurgaon’s Pathways International School while Avijit was a painter. They reached Dehradun on October 21 and celebrated Diwali there. On October 24, the couple hired the cab to go to Chakrata, 135km away. From there, cops said, the young pair asked Raju to drive them to Tiger Fall. The two were last spotted at a momo shop in the area.
Circle officer (Vikas Nagar) Swapn Kishore Singh told TOI, “The cab was a jeep and three friends of Raju (all residents of Malrauna village in Chakrata) were also seated in the vehicle. The trio said they were Raju’s friends and would return on their own from Chakrata after watching a ‘nautanki’.
Moumita Das and Avijit Paul were in Uttarakhand during Diwali break
According to Raju, the murder took place in the evening when they were returning to Chakrata. Near a place called Lakhamandal, the trio asked Raju to stop the vehicle and told the couple to step out.
In his confession, driver Raju Das told the Dehradun police that he wasn’t personally involved in the couple’s murder. His friends after looting Moumita and Avijit threw them off the steep cliff, he said. The cabbie claimed that after the crime he kept Avijit’s mobile phone.
Moumita hails from Kalyani in West Bengal while Avijit came from Dum Dum near Kolkata.
Mrinal Krishna Das, Moumita’s father, had registered a missing case at Saket police station on October 29. While probing the matter, Delhi police had found that the last phone call from the couple’s number was made to Raju’s number on October 23 and since then there was no trace of them. In addition to the couple’s mobile phone, the handset of Raju, too, was switched off after Diwali.
Unsatisfied with the police prober, Moumita’s brother Mriganka Das and uncle Gopal Das went to Chakrata and adjoining Vikas Nagar area and told the police there about the missing couple.
On November 6, Raju was rounded up and brought to Vikas Nagar Bazaar Chowki for questioning. But in a bizarre twist, he was let off as police felt he did not provide any “substantial” clue in the case.
It was then that a three-member Delhi police team arrived at Chakrata on Sunday afternoon. Interestingly, just few hours later, Raju switched on his mobile phone and inserted a new SIM card, giving the police team a reasonable reason to suspect his role in it.
“Naugaon police, after watching the photograph of Avijit and matching it with the one which they had in their record, have now confirmed that they have found Avijit's body,” Singh said, adding the search is still on to find Moumita's body.