Five, including doctor arrested for kidnapping medical student

Noida: In a joint operation performed by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) and Gonda police, a 21-year-old medical student who was kidnapped from Gonda district on January 18 has been successfully rescued by police from the Noida Expressway area late on Thursday night. Five people, including a doctor who works in Delhi and allegedly plotted the conspiracy, have been arrested, police said.

Police officials said that the victim was allegedly honey-trapped by a Delhi-based woman and then kidnapped. The kidnappers demanded

Rs 70 lakh ransom from the victim's family, they added.

The victim Gaurav Halder is a resident of Kashipur in the Payagpur area of Bahraich district, is pursuing Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine, and Surgery (BAMS) from the SCPM College of Nursing and Medical Sciences, Haripur in Gonda and was residing in the hostel. He was abducted from Gonda after he was honey-trapped.

Three of the accused, including the mastermind, were held following an exchange of gunfire at the Zero Point in Greater Noida late on Thursday night while they were on an expressway in a car with the hostage, the police said.

Their two other associates, who had made the ransom call to the student's father, who also is a doctor and lives in Bahraich, were arrested from Sant Kabir Nagar later on Friday, the police said.

A senior police officer said that Gaurav was honey-trapped by Abhishek Singh's female friend who is from Delhi. The main accused behind the crime is Abhishek Singh who worked at Rathi Hospital in Delhi's Najafgarh and was known to the victim.

"Abhishek colluded with his friend Dr Preeti Mehra to plan the kidnapping. He asked

Dr Mehra to honey-trap Gaurav and asked him to come to Gonda to meet her. Later, the accused injected Gaurav with the drug and brought him to Delhi. He was kept hostage at DDA flat in Delhi's Bakkarwala area before being rescued by police," said a senior police officer.

(With Agency inputs)