Cab driver held in Delhi rape case wrote Bihar Police exam days before crime

Gurgaon: Basu Kumar Singh, who was arrested for allegedly kidnapping and raping a 10-year-old girl in Delhi’s Chhatarpur area, had visited his native village in Bihar’s Khagaria on June 10 to write a police havildar clerk recruitment exam.Singh’s elder brother Jay Kishan Kumar, who lives in Chakkarpur and works as a deputy manager at a private bank, said the 29-year-old came to Gurgaon in 2018 and took up work as a security guard.“Singh initially left security work because the job required night duty and paid only Rs 8,000-10,000 monthly,” Kumar said. “After a couple of years, he took up a job as a rider for a food delivery app before returning to Bihar. He returned to Gurgaon two years later, at my insistence and started driving for three cab aggregators — Ola, Rapido and Uber — in Gurgaon to support his wife and two minor sons.”Singh obtained the white Wagon R in Jan through an acquaintance, Ankit, who owned the vehicle. According to the brother, the cab owner had known Singh for around two years. “His (Singh’s) behaviour was good initially, so he gave him the cab after I stood as a guarantor and provided my address details,” Kumar said.Singh, the brother said, worked long hours, returning home every three to four days to eat, bathe and change clothes before leaving again.

“I always told him not to drive at night because he would get tired and something could happen,” he said.On Sunday, Singh stayed at his brother’s house and left in the evening. “He ate food and left around 6:30-7 pm. There is CCTV footage of him leaving. After that, we had no contact. Since he used to work through the night, we generally did not call him late,” Kumar said.Around 5am on June 22, Singh allegedly spotted the girl sleeping on a pavement with her family in the Chhatarpur area and pulled her into the vehicle.

He allegedly raped the child and dumped her in a forested area. Singh switched off his mobile phone to evade detection, but his vehicle’s digital footprint proved decisive. Delhi Police teams tracked and arrested him from Vikaspuri.Hours before Singh’s arrest, Delhi Police located and interrogated his brother. “Around 11.30 am on Monday, my wife called saying police officers were enquiring about Singh’s whereabouts,” the brother said.

“Later, I got a call from a nearby general store saying police had come to my home. I had to take a leave from work and go to the police station.”According to his brother, Singh mostly stayed in his cab or with friends, occasionally staying with his family. The brother had not visited their native village in Bihar for nearly three years, while Singh kept travelling between Gurgaon and their home.A criminal history spanning multiple offences has emerged. Police records show Singh faced charges in five to six cases, including molestation, rioting and attempted murder. The charges date to 2015, 2017, 2018 and two separate cases in 2022.The family also told TOI about Singh’s drug addiction, though they said he was attempting to quit since taking up cab driving.