An app cab driver and three other men were arrested late on Saturday for allegedly robbing a man who had boarded the cab thinking it was a shuttle taxi in front of a bar on EM Bypass early on Christmas morning.

Anjan Biswas, 51, was allegedly blindfolded and robbed of his ATM card and forced to share the PIN, police said. The men allegedly withdrew Rs 40,000 using the card and the PIN from an ATM kiosk on the Bypass.

According to the complaint lodged by Biswas, the men pinned him down on the floor of the car and snatched his gold chain and wallet containing Rs 25,000 before letting him go on Dhalai bridge near Patuli.

The accused have been identified as Raju Majhi, 32, Santosh Poddar, 24, Sheikh Biki, 25, and Arpan Sen, 32. All are residents of Picnic Garden Lane in Tiljala.

Biswas, originally from Tripura, owns two guest houses in Anandapur and Kasba and jointly runs a band that plays at a bar on the Bypass, the police said. He was returning home to Kasba early on Christmas when he was robbed.

Officers said Biswas had boarded the “shuttle cab” in front of the bar where his band plays around 2am. He sat on the backseat of the car.

“There were three other men in the car, apart from the driver. When the car reached Lashkarhat (on the Bypass), the man sitting next to Biswas asked the driver to stop. He stepped out on the pretext of relieving himself. While getting in, he requested Biswas to shift inside and make room for him. Once Biswas shifted, he was easily overpowered by the others and blindfolded inside the moving car,” said an officer of Tiljala police station.

Biswas, after being abandoned on the road, reported the matter to the police, based on which Tiljala police station started a case.

The cab at Tiljala police station on Sunday The Telegraph Picture

Senior officers involved in the probe said they had drawn up the probable route the car took.

“Tower dumps (data collected from a mobile phone tower closest to a particular spot) of those places were obtained. CCTV footage was scanned and a vehicle with damage mark over its left front wheel was identified. The vehicle was suspected to be a Nissan Go,” said a senior police officer.

The company’s dealer in Calcutta and the app cab companies were contacted with details of the car obtained from CCTV footage. A list of vehicles of similar make and plying commercially as app cabs was prepared and each was scrutinised, the police said.

The driver was tracked down and arrested, following which the other team members were rounded up. The accused were produced in court on Sunday and remanded in police custody.

A senior officer said they were questioning the accused to find out whether they had robbed more people.