Man struck nails into his feet, claimed assault and abduction; arrested

A civil contractor from Kannauj, who had claimed he was abducted earlier this month and dumped in Greater Noida, had shackled his own legs and hammered nails in his feet to implicate a municipal corporation chairman, police said on Wednesday.

Accused Amruddin, around 35, was found wounded and shackled by passersby on a road near Dhoom-Manikpur village in Badalpur area, following which police were alerted, officials said.

"He was rushed to a hospital for treatment. Later, he told police that he was abducted from Lucknow on October 22 and kept confined in a room for some days. He said he badly assaulted, shackled in chains and nails hammered into his feet after which he was dumped here," Superintendent of Police, Greater Noida, Ranvijay Singh said.

"Based on his claims, an FIR was registered against Mushtaq Ahmed alias Bhuttu, chairman of Kannauj district's Gursahaiganj municipal corporation and investigation taken up," he told reporters.

However, he said, during probe when Amruddin was questioned again, loopholes emerged in his narrative of event, raising suspicion over his claims.

"When grilled further, Amruddin confessed to police that he had a money related dispute with Ahmed and had created this narrative and inflicted injuries on himself to implicate him," Singh said.

According to police, Amruddin said he had some money to get from the chairman for a civil work back at home but was being denied the sum.

On October 21, Amruddin left Kannauj to reach Kanpur where he stayed in a hotel.

The next day he left for Lucknow without checking out from the hotel and reached the state capital, where he went to the State Human Rights Commission Office and then to the Director General of Police's office with a letter of complaint regarding pending dues, the officer said.

On October 23, he returned to the hotel in Kanpur, put calls on his mobile phone on forwarding mode and later checked out to leave for Hyderabad in a train, where he stayed briefly and then took the rail route to come to Delhi, Singh said.

"Once in Delhi, he went to the Anand Vihar ISBT where he purchased the chain and lock and then boarded a private bus on which he reached Dhoom-Manikpur and got down at an isolated spot. Here he went inside the bushes, chained himself and hammered nails in his feet and then dragged himself towards the road, where passersby took note and called up the police on 100," he said.

A case has been registered against Amruddin at the Badalpur police station and he has been arrested for concocting the story, implicating a man and misleading police, the officer said.