Three held for trying to abduct journalist in Gzb

Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad police have arrested three persons, including a Delhi Police home guard for allegedly threatening and trying to abduct a journalist from Indirapuram police station area.

Cops said that the accused persons were arrested while they had come to abduct the journalist on Tuesday night.

According to police, the arrested persons have been identified as Ankur Parashar, resident of Harsh Vihar in Delhi, Aadil and Shaban, natives of Seelampur area.

Police added that Ankur is a home guard with Delhi Police and also runs a spa centre- 'Hi Spa', at Aditya mall in Indirapuram area.

"Acting on a tip-off from an informer, police team arrested the trio of accused during routine police checking at Kala Patthar intersection in Indirapuram area on Tuesday night. The arrest was made while they have been looking for the journalist to kidnap him" said Shlok Kumar, Superintendent of Police (city), Ghaziabad.

The officer further said that accused, Ankur, wanted to use the ransom money to clear debts.

"Upon interrogating the accused persons, it came to light that a journalist with private news channel conducted a sting operation of Ankur's spa Center for which he had paid him Rs 2.5 lakhs for not broadcasting the footage at news channel. The money was borrowed by Ankur from a known person who had been constantly pressuring him to pay back. However, when he failed to clear debts, he plotted conspiracy to abduct the journalist and use ransom money to clear his debts," added Kumar.

The officer further said that Ankur then involved two of his friends, Aadil and Shaban, in the kidnapping bid.

"Preliminary investigations into the case showed that Aadil and Shaban have a criminal background and were found to have been involved in several criminal cases in various police stations around Delhi. We are further trying to find out more about their criminal history," said Kumar.

Police have recovered a Maruti celerio car with fake number plate, a country made pistol with three live ammunition, couple of blunt weapons and a few toxic injections.