Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A terrifying ordeal unfolded on Super Corridor on Tuesday evening when a youth hijacked a taxi, holding an elderly couple hostage for nearly 30 minutes under the Gandhi Nagar police station limits. The harrowing incident ended only when the couple’s resistance caused the vehicle to crash into a pole, allowing a crowd of locals to catch the suspect.
The victims, Anil Shukla (66), a retired bank official, and his wife, Rekha Shukla, had just returned to Indore from a wedding in Delhi. On Tuesday evening, they hired a taxi from the airport to head to their residence in Mahalaxmi Nagar.
According to ACP Nidhi Saxena, when the vehicle stopped at a red light on the Super Corridor, a youth approached it and knocked on the window, demanding that the driver, Mohit Awasthi, exit the car. When Awasthi refused, the suspect threatened him with a screwdriver, forced him out of the driver’s seat and sped off toward Gandhi Nagar with the couple still inside.
As the vehicle sped toward the Pitra Parvat area, the suspect began physically assaulting the couple and snatched the man’s mobile phone as he called up his daughter to inform her of the incident. In a desperate bid for safety, Anil Shukla offered the attacker cash and his gold chain in exchange for their release, but the suspect refused.
Despite the danger, the couple fought back against their captor while the car was moving. During the struggle, the vehicle veered off course and crashed into a roadside pole. The taxi driver told the police that he chased the vehicle on a passerby’s two-wheeler and found the damaged car on Hatod Road.
Hearing the impact and the couple’s cries for help, a crowd gathered, rescued the terrified couple and caught the suspect until Hatod police arrived. The injured couple was rushed to the hospital for treatment. Police have arrested the suspect, identified as Aman Pal, and registered a case of robbery and kidnapping.
