Crime branch solves kidnapping of ex-corporator’s son

The victim was kidnapped while he was going to his college in his BMW car, police said on Sunday. However, the police are yet to arrest the main accused and some of the accomplices.

The kidnappers had initially demanded Rs. 50 crore but they agreed to a ransom amount of Rs 1 crore. For the last six months, they were planning to kidnap a businessman with sound financial standing and become rich overnight, they told the police.

The victim, a resident of Sainik Vihar, was kidnapped on September 27 when he was going to his college in Pitampura in his BMW car. Midway near Netaji Subhash Place area in North-West Delhi, he was intercepted by two motorcycle-borne persons, who were wearing police uniform—one of them wearing a traffic police uniform while another was in a regular police uniform. They started questioning him, saying he had flouted traffic rules.

Meanwhile, one SUV which was following the youth’s car also stopped there. The occupants of the SUV and the motorcyclists dragged the youth into the SUV and fled. They made a ransom call from the boy’s mobile phone to his father, who also runs a hospital and a school. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs 50 crore.

The former Congress councillor immediately informed the police and a case was registered at Netaji Subhash Place police station. Police started tracking the location of the victim’s phone with which the caller was making ransom calls. The victim’s family received three ransom calls from three different places in a span of 24 hours. The first call was traced to near Bhondsi Jail in Gurgaon, the second was made to Faridabad and the third one to Gurgaon.

“Earlier, the kidnappers had demanded Rs. 50 crore from the family of the victim, but sensing the police dragnet around them, in a hurry they settled for Rs. 1 crore and released the youth from captivity on October 3,” a senior police official said.

On Friday, Crime Branch officials received a tip-off and apprehended four of the accused — Anand (27), Vichitar Vir (30), Vikrant Shokeen (30) and Vinod Kumar (32) — from Chhawla area of South West district.

During the investigation, it was revealed that a gang comprising Mahesh, Vinod, Aashu, Manjeet, Dabas and their other associates were involved in this crime. Most of them were involved in property dealing and toll collection businesses.

“After identifying the target, they all agreed to kidnap him and chalked out an elaborate plan, carefully monitoring the day-to-day activity of the victim. They arranged the police uniforms, procured SIM cards on fake IDs, vehicles, hypnotic/sedative drugs to overpower the victim in confinement, wireless set, fake traffic challan machine,” they told the police.

They further told the police that the victim was kept hostage at different locations in Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan, which were arranged by Mahesh, Aashu and their other associates. Meanwhile, the police have recovered the BMW car, the SUV (Scorpio), along with a Maruti Swift and a bike.