Four held for fake kidnapping in Gurgaon

Four men, including an engineering student and a graduate, were arrested here for plotting a fictitious kidnapping of one of them and demanding Rs.5 lakh ransom for his safe release, police said Tuesday.

Pawan Kumar, Sudhir Kumar, Lokesh Kaushik, all residents of Gurgaon and Bhagwan Das from Lala Rohdai village in Rewari - all aged between 20-30 - were arrested for "kidnapping" of Pawan.

Pawan, who works at the Delhi Airport, was under debt, a police official said.

"To repay the debt, Pawan planned his own fake kidnapping with his friends and demanded Rs.5 lakh for his 'safe' release," said Joint Commissioner of Police Vivek Sharma.

The first ransom call was made on landline phone at his father Devki Nandan's house Oct 12 night.

As per the planned story, the "kidnappers" told Devki Nandan that Pawan had been kidnapped while he was going to work and threatened to kill him if their demands were not fulfilled, Sharma said.

Sudhir is an engineering student and Lokesh is a graduate. Pawan and Bhagwan Das are school dropouts.

To avoid arrests, they were making phone calls from different parts of Delhi, Gurgaon and Rewari.

Pawan was living in a hotel in Rewari while others were making phone calls from landline phones and Pawan's mobile.