Rescued after 13 days, traumatised Delhi doctor thanks police

A day after he was rescued from kidnappers who held him hostage for 13 days, 29-year-old Sreekanth struggled to find words as he faced questions on Thursday evening.

Shaking and stammering, the balding 29-year-old Delhi doctor said: "Thanks for saving me to the entire Delhi police team. Mistakes happen... Ola was not..." he failed to complete the sentence.

Sreekanth was kidnapped from outside Preet Vihar Metro Station in east Delhi by an Ola cab driver on July 6 and was rescued by Delhi Police after a shootout in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday, outside the room in a city police building, his family members told IANS that the kidnappers had assured them of his safety.

"On July 16, around 10.30 p.m. I tried his (Sreekanth's) number and one of the kidnappers picked up the call," Sreekanth's uncle, Narayan Goud, 55, told IANS.

"They told me 'you don't worry, doctor will be safe, we only want money from Ola'. They clearly told me this," Goud said.

The driver of the Ola cab that Sreekanth took on the night of July 6 kidnapped him with the help of his friends who were waiting at a distance.

On the morning of July 7, they called up the Bengaluru office of Ola and demanded a ransom of Rs 5 crore for his release and threatened to kill Sreekanth if the money was not paid.

Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Singh Yadav confirmed that even though the kidnappers talked to the family they didn't ask them for any ransom.

Hailing from Gadwal in Telangana, Sreekanth has a medical degree from China and has been working in a city hospital for the past two and a half years.

Goud said that Sreekanth was a simple person and was terrified. "He did whatever they said and never tried to escape," he added.

Yadav said the kidnappers had slit Sreekanth's wrist once to scare him. "If the cut had been any deeper it would have been fatal."

Inside the room, Sreekanth pulled himself together as he tried to put together some words for a second time. "Ola was not responsible. They went to police and shared the information..." He again failed to complete the sentence.

The teary-eyed doctor again thanked the police before being escorted out.

--IANS

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