Youtuber and rapper Aryan Rajvansh, known as Er Arya, arrested for shooting taxi driver in armed robbery

25-year-old Aryan Rajvansh, who is a rapper known on Youtube as Er Arya, is said to have robbed taxi driver Kulbhushan Sharma at gunpoint after being unable to pay his fare due to financial difficulties.

The engineering graduate supposedly shot his victim in the hip when they stopped at a petrol pump on Sunday June 23, before stealing his belongings, including his mobile phone, and fleeing the scene. He then returned to his hometown of Ayodhya in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, according to local publication Times of India. Police tracked him down, however, because of what he posted on social media and arrested within 24 hours of the crime.

Rajvansh completed his BTech in computer science from a college in the Indian city in Coimbatore in 2022, but he then found himself unemployed and struggling for money. His passion was creating music videos. "He completed his BTech nine months ago and then started making music videos," police told the publication.

Aryan's YouTube account, under the handle Er Arya, features several videos, some which had thousands of views. One of his videos, uploaded around five months ago, shows the smashing and looting of a car. Three weeks prior to that, he uploaded a video called Vaardat which showed a masked person holding a gun.

On June 23, Aryan had gone to visit a friend in Dwarka Mor in Delhi to collect some luggage. Then, at around 1am, he booked a taxi through the local travel app to go to the Kashmiri Gate area in Old Delhi, around a one hour and 20 minute drive away. When the journey came to an end, Rajvansh had no money to pay the fare and used a handgun to rob Sharma.

"He was in a financial crunch so he brandished his pistol and robbed the taxi driver on the way. As the vehicle was running out of fuel, Aryan asked the driver to stop at a petrol pump and refuel. The cabbie stopped at an IOC pump in Sriniwaspuri, Delhi, and tried to escape. Aryan shot the driver in the hip," Times of India reported.

As Sharma fell on the road, bleeding, Rajvansh took Sharma's belongings and fled the scene. "After committing the crime, he took a bus to Ayodhya. With the help of technical surveillance and scanning CCTV footage, we zeroed in on the suspect," an officer told Times of India.

The injured driver was taken to a hospital for treatment. When police arrested Rajvansh they found the stolen mobile phone and the pistol used in the crime.