Cab robbery: Tech town's new trend

SALT LAKE: The abduction of techie Sandipan Das is shocking, but it may just be the tip of the iceberg. Similar incidents have happened in the area in the recent past and the modus operandi suggests that some of the taxi drivers may well be actively helping the gangs.
Salt Lake police have received quite a number of complaints though none were abductions from passengers of being robbed in a manner eerily similar to that of Das's abduction.All of these passengers were robbed on their way back home in taxis that stopped midway, complaining of technical disorder. In all of the cases, the gang was found waiting nearby.
On Friday evening, Sandipan had taken a taxi from the DLF Building. The driver complained of a technical problem and stopped the taxi at a desolate stretch on the Salt Lake Bypass, near a CRPF camp. The abductors were waiting at this point. As soon as the taxi came to a halt, some of them forced into the taxi and took Das away through a different route.
Similar incidents have been reported from places surrounding Rajarhat and Salt Lake Sector V, though police chose to overlook them. Even young couples taking taxis from Nicco Park have reported of harassment by taxi drivers when they protested against doctored taxi metres.
TOI reported an incident earlier this month when a software professional was tormented by two snake charmers near the Millennium Towers while he was sitting in a taxi. They dropped a snake on his lap through the open window of the taxi and demanded money. The techie was let off only after he shelled out Rs 600. He later lodged a formal complaint with the Salt Lake police at Sector V Investigation Centre. The police, after initiating the probe, concluded that the snake charmers had done the job in collusion with the taxi driver. But the taxi driver is yet to be rounded up.
Again in February, a young woman working with a company at the Technopolis Building was robbed at a desolate place while she was going to the airport via the Rajarhat arterial road. Some Miscreants stopped her taxi at a desolate place and snatched her belongings, including all her credit cards. However, the goons forgot to take away her cellphone, with which she called up the police. In January, a young BPO worker was robbed of his purse at the dead of the night between Salt Lake bypass and Nicco Park.
"We have tried to get in touch with taxi unions. But the union office bearers shirked their responsibility by saying that the taxis in question were flying taxis' and that their drivers were not their members," said a senior police officer.