Man kills cab driver, dumps body in UP canal

new delhi: Delhi Police on Sunday said they had arrested a criminal for allegedly murdering a taxi driver and dumping the body in a canal. Police said the accused, identified as Vikas Tomar, used to hire a taxi and then kill the driver at a secluded spot before dumping the body in a deserted place.

Police have said that Tomar had confessed to killing another taxi driver in a similar way in 2008. Cops added that the accused used to sell the taxi and make money from it.

This comes days after the Delhi Police had claimed to have arrested a serial killer with the same modus operandi.

One official said, on June 15, a missing person report was filed for Pradeep Singhal (35), a taxi driver. "It came to notice that an identical dead body similar to missing Pradeep Singhal was recovered at Rabupura police station in Gautam Budh Nagar," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) PK Mishra.

Vijay Vihar SHO, Inspector Sudhir Kumar had started the investigation in the case and found that Tomar used to keep changing his mobile phones and SIM cards to evade the police.

However, one of Tomar's associates remains at large and police on Sunday raided multiple locations in a bid to trace him. Meanwhile, police said, Tomar had pointed them towards Pradeep's abandoned taxi, which was recovered from Kaushambi. They added that he and his associate might be involved in other similar murders.

Police said Tomar and his associate used to hire cabs from app-based taxi services and then win the driver's confidence before robbing him, killing him and then dumping his body at a deserted location.