Ghaziabad: In a joint operation carried out by a Special Task Force of Ghaziabad and Noida police, a 38-year-old software engineer was rescued early Friday morning, a week after he was abducted from Raj Nagar extension of Ghaziabad.
During the rescue operation, a brief encounter ensued which left two of the three arrested kidnappers with bullet wounds. Two police constables also received injuries.
Police said the accused were identified as Sharad Sharma, from Ayodhya, Mahesh Mishra from Gujarat and Rinku from Hapur. Cops seized two country-made pistols, a Santro car, three ATM cards and some cash from their possession.
Cops said that Rajiv Kumar Singh, who works in HCL Noida, was abducted on May 23, a day before his birthday, from Raj Nagar extension while he was waiting for a bus to go to Haridwar.
After kidnapping Singh, the accused demanded a ransom of Rs 15 lakh from his wife through a WhatsApp message.
As directed by the kidnappers, the family deposited Rs 1,40,000 into Singh's account, which the accused withdrew from ATM machines by wearing masks to escape detection.
Vaibhav Krishna, Senior Superintendent of police, Ghaziabad, said that around 18 teams, including Noida STF, Ghaziabad police and Crime Branch were deployed to carry out the rescue operation.
"After the victim's family approached us and registered a case of kidnapping, we formed search teams to locate the whereabouts of Singh. On Thursday night, we received a tip-off about a suspected house in Peera Garhi village in Indirapuram area of Ghaziabad and raided the spot" said Krishna.
The SSP added that Singh was rescued from a secluded room in Prahlad Garhi village, where he had been tied up. One of the three accused, who was keeping watch on him, was also arrested from the spot.
"Upon interrogating the arrested person, he told us that his two other accomplices had gone to withdraw money from an ATM in Mohan Nagar area and police teams were pressed into action to nab them.
"The two accused, travelling in a Santro car, were intercepted by police and instead of stopping they started running away," added Krishna.
Police said that the criminals opened fire on police near Officer's Cut area of Raj Nagar extension and, after retaliatory firing, the duo of criminals were arrested by police.
Two constables also sustained bullet injuries, but are not in any serious condition.
Rajiv Narayan Mishra, Superintendent of Police, STF, said that the accused have been involved in many similar kidnapping incidents in the past as well. "The kidnappers consisted of young criminals, who used to abduct upper middle-class professionals, after doing a recce of their movements," he added.