Man held for targeting, kidnapping loan agents

Delhi police arrested a 24-year-old man from Jaipur for allegedly running a racket that kidnapped loan agents and demanded ransom from their families, officials said on Thursday.

Shamim was also wanted for allegedly abducting and sexually assaulting a minor girl in his native Mewat district in Haryana, they said.

On September 3, the accused had called a Delhi-based loan commission agent to Gurgaon on the pretext of a loan query and kidnapped him. He then called the agent's family and demanded Rs 10 lakh for his release, a senior police officer said.

The ransom was later negotiated to Rs 50,000.

But the agent's family deposited only Rs 15,000 in his bank account and the money was withdrawn from an ATM in Mewat, police said.

On getting the money, Shamim released the agent, they said.

Following a complaint by the agent's wife, a case was registered at Gulabi Bagh police station in Delhi. Shamim was arrested after an analysis of phone call records and CCTV camera footage of the area from where the agent was kidnapped, said Monika Bhardwaj, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North).

During interrogation, Shamim told police he was the mastermind of the gang that targeted loan agents.

He and his associates Haroon, Mazid, Sanir and Pandit were involved in similar cases in Mumbai, Agra, Jaipur and Delhi, Bhardwaj said.

They used to call a service provider to avail business or car loan and thereafter, they used to ask the company's employees to reach a designated place, police said.

Once the victim would reach there, they would kidnap him and call his family members for ransom, the DCP said.

They had robbed two persons in Alwar in Rajasthan, using the same modus operandi.