July 23, 2019

Mysuru: A cab booked in Mandya through some other person’s mobile phone has been stolen in Mysuru.

The person, who lost his car, is Harish, a resident of Yelwal in city. Harish had attached his Maruti Swift car with Ola Cab Services and on Sunday afternoon, Harish received a booking message on his cell phone with the landmark as Harsha Road.

When Harish read Harsha Road, a person waved his hand and stopped the cab and told Harish that he had booked the cab and gave Harish the One Time Password (OTP) sent to his mobile phone by the cab aggregator. After obtaining the OTP, Harish asked the person to get into the cab and took him near Infosys, which was the drop location.

The person then directed Harish to proceed on a particular road with less density of traffic and asked Harish to wait for a few minutes as he was waiting for someone and alighted from the cab. After speaking over the mobile phone for nearly 30 minutes, the person told Harish that his phone was dead and as he wanted to make some urgent calls, he would put his cell phone for charging in the car and sat on the driver’s seat.

As Harish did not suspect the person as his behaviour was normal, the person who was seated in the driver’s seat tried to put his phone for charging and started the car. Harish, who was standing nearby ran towards the car but the person pushed him and drove away the car.

Harish then rushed to Lashkar Police Station and lodged a complaint. Lashkar Police, who registered a case, traced the mobile phone number from which the cab was booked to Mandya. The mobile phone number belonged to a woman and when the Police enquired her about booking a cab through her mobile phone number, the woman told the Police that while she was selling greens, a person approached her and requested her to give him her mobile phone as he wanted to make an urgent call. She further told the Police that after she gave her mobile phone to that person, he returned the phone after some time and left from the place.

It later came to light that the person, who had taken the mobile phone of the lady, had downloaded Ola App and booked a cab through the app. After receiving the OTP, the person called his accomplices in Mysuru and gave him the OTP and the cab’s registration number.

The person who was waiting at the pickup location gave cab driver Harish the OTP following which Harish took the person to the drop location where the person in the cab stole it by driving it away.

It may be recalled that a few months back a stranger had requested a student, who was waiting for his friend near the Railway Station to book a cab for him as his phone was dead. Though the student told the stranger that he has not installed the app, the stranger began to plead with the student following which the student downloaded the app on his tab and booked a cab for the stranger with the drop location as Infosys.

When the cab arrived at the Railway Station, the stranger boarded the cab and when it reached Infosys, the stranger asked the driver of the cab to proceed on a mud road as his friend was waiting there. When the cab began to proceed on the mud road, the driver saw stones kept across the road and alighted from the car to remove them during which the stranger drove away the car. Now miscreants have used the same technique to steal another cab. It is suspected that the same gang may have stolen the car now.

