Late-night Uber ride turns fatal: Cab driver killed, last passenger held for his murder

According to the accused, he had booked the cab to travel from Titwala to Junnar as he was heading to Pune to meet his girlfriend. (Representative photo)

• Uber driver Ahmed found dead after ride with passenger Bhelerao
• Bhelerao claims self-defense, says Ahmed attempted knife robbery
• Police arrested Bhelerao; forensic reports awaited for clarity

Did our AI summary help?

A late-night ride turned fatal for a 33-year-old Uber driver who was allegedly killed by the last passenger he took onboard, in what the accused described was an act of self-defence and a bid to foil the driver's robbery attempt.

As per a report in the Hindustan Times, the incident came to the fore early Friday morning when local motorists spotted a Maruti Ertiga cab with blood stains abandoned in Goveli village along the Kalyan–Murbad highway in Titwala and alerted police. Images and videos of the blood-stained vehicle soon started circulating widely on social media.

The Titwala police initiated the investigation as the vehicle was found in their jurisdiction.  However, the whereabouts of the driver remained unknown, reported Hindustan Times.

A crucial breakthrough came when the Otur police in Ahilyanagar district recovered a body bearing multiple injury marks from the Ganeshkhind stretch of Malshej Ghat. The body was later suspected to be that of the missing driver, prompting the Thane Rural Crime Branch to intensify its probe.

The deceased driver was identified as Ahmed, a resident of Airoli in Navi Mumbai and originally from Uttar Pradesh, who had been missing for five days before his body was finally traced in Ahilyanagar (Ahmednagar) district on Saturday.

As police intensified its probe and started piecing together the sequence of events, they analysed records from the cab-hailing application to identify the passenger who had booked the ride and examined CCTV footage from several locations along the Kalyan–Murbad route.

Police found that the last passenger to book a ride in Ahmed's can was Adarsh Chandrakant Bhelerao, a 21-year-old engineering student and a resident of Titwala.

Following the digital trail and mobile phone records, the police traced the suspect to his residence in Titwala, from where the Thane Rural Crime Branch arrested him on Saturday.

Bhausaheb Gaikwad of the Thane Rural Crime Branch said the accused confessed to the crime during interrogation. According to Bhelerao, he had booked the cab late on Thursday night to travel from Titwala to Junnar as he was heading to Pune to meet his girlfriend.

“While they were passing through the Ganeshkhind area, the driver allegedly attempted to rob him by threatening him with a knife. The accused claimed that he acted in self-defence, overpowered the driver and stabbed him with the same knife, resulting in his death,” said Gaikwad.

Following the incident, Bhelerao allegedly dumped the body in the ghat area before driving the vehicle back towards Titwala. Footage reportedly showed him stopping at a petrol pump to refuel the vehicle after the alleged crime. He later abandoned the blood-stained car along the Kalyan–Murbad highway and returned to his residence.

Police are awaiting forensic and post-mortem reports, which are expected to clarify the exact cause and sequence of events leading to Ahmed’s death.