Suspect who killed ride-hailing driver in ‘carjacking adventure’ caught

The District East police on Wednesday claimed to have resolved the mystery behind the killing of an online ride-hailing driver in Karachi by arresting a suspect allegedly involved in the murder.

A young man Shahzaib, belonging to Hyderabad, was found dead in the bushes in the Scheme 33 area on November 10. According to the police spokesperson, the District East’s deputy inspector general and senior superintendent of police had formed a special team to investigate the case. On their instructions, the operation and investigation wings of the Sachal police station conducted a raid in which a suspect, identified as Abdul Samad, was taken into custody.

The arrest was made following the leads obtained from technical analyses of the data of the GPS tracker installed in the car, CCTV footage of the area and other evidences collected during the probe.

The spokesperson said that the initial investigation found that the suspect took the driver’s life during a "carjacking adventure". Samad had hired Shahzaib through an online ride-hailing service to travel in the city.

As they reached near Punjabi Sodagaran Society, the suspect pointed a pistol at the driver, demanding him to stop the car. Shahzaib stopped the vehicle after which Samad shot him in the neck, which proved fatal.

However, the suspect’s plan to steal the car foiled as the GPS tracker deactivated the engine. The weapon used in the murder along with bullets was recovered from the suspect’s possession.

On the day of the incident, Shahzaib had booked a ride from Hyderabad to Karachi’s Korangi area. After dropping the passeneger, he booked another ride which was called by the suspect.

Meanwhile, the suspect in a video statement said that he killed the driver during a carjacking adventure inspired by a video game. He said that he had booked the ride with the intention of snatching the car. He said that he tried to stopShahzaib’s bleeding but could not, then he put the body in the car’s backseat and drove to a secluded area, where he dumped it in the bushes. He said that he cleaned the car and attempted to restart it but failed, after which he ran away. He revealed that the pistol was licensed and belonged to his father.

The police were informed by the relatives of the deceased after they tracked down the car using its GPS location. During the initial probe, police had suspected the involvement of a woman in the crime following the recovery of jewellery from the car.