Ola cab drivers caught on camera looting locked houses, arrested

According to police, the accused worked as Ola cab drivers during the day and observed locked houses, only to return at night to burgle them. One of the accused owned a car, which they used to ferry passengers and commit crime. The men, identified as Kaja Mohamad alias Nainar Ahmed (38) and his brother-in-law Mohamad Nassir (32) from Ranganathapuram in Tambaram, were arrested after examining CCTV footage in areas where thefts took place. The drivers fell into the police net after a family in West Mambalam lodged a complaint with the police. 

Narayan Swamy (68) and his wife Rukmani (65), who lived on Balakrishnan Street in West Mambalam had gone out of station on October 21, entrusting the house to their daughter Bichulakshmi (35) who lived in the adjacent street. 

On October 25, Bichulakshmi discovered that the lock on the front door was broken and five sovereigns of gold was missing. She subsequently alerted the local police. The police checked CCTV footage and notice a vehicle with an Ola label plying in the area on the day the crime was committed. The police checked CCTV footage from four other areas where thefts were reported and realised that the same Ola cab was present in all the cases. 

On contacting the Ola company, the police were able to identify the men and took them into custody. The police said that the men had earlier targeted locked houses at Ashok Nagar and MGR Nagar. The police recovered 12 sovereigns of gold from the accused. A senior police officer said, “The number of crime cases involving call taxi drivers are on the rise, despite companies being directed to verify the background of drivers before hiring them.”