A 26-year-old property dealer who was allegedly abducted on Monday was rescued in the wee hours here today from Ghaziabad and one of his kidnappers was arrested, police said today.
The kidnappers had demanded Rs four crore as ransom from his father Harish Chand, who lived in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
"The incident was reported at Seemapuri Police Station on Tuesday evening by the victim's maternal uncle Sunil Kumar Kanojia. Rishabh Verma was rescued within 24 hours at 2:15 AM today from Gagan Vihar in Ghaziabad. One of the kidnappers, identified as Saurabh has been arrested," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) R A Sanjeev.
Police suspect that some close relative had passed on the information about Rishabh to the abductors. Movements of Rishabh must have been kept under close watch for sometime before the plan to abduct him was made.
"Investigation is on, role of close relatives, other perpetrators is being investigated and ascertained and some more arrests are likely to be made very soon," said Sanjeev.
In his complaint to police on Tuesday, Sunil Kumar had said that he had dropped his nephew Rishabh Verma, a businessman and a realtor at Dr Gulshan Clinic, New Seemapuri here at 9:00 AM. However, the same day he came to know from his brother-in-law Harish Chand Verma that Rishabh has been kidnapped and a ransom call of Rs four crore has been received in Kanpur at 8:16 PM.
A case was registered and all the phone calls made for demanding ransom, mobile phone numbers of Rishabh, Harish Chand, Sunil Kumar, friends, relatives, business partners and suspects were obtained and analysed.
On the basis of the analysis and enquiries, different teams were formed and dispatched to Farukhabad, Etah, Behta Hazipur (Ghaziabad) and other places in Delhi. The hideout of the abductors was zeroed down to a small room in House number 216, Gali No 16A, Jain Complex, Gagan Vihar, Ghaziabad, UP.
"A raid was conducted at 2:15 AM today at the house from where Rishabh was rescued. He was found drugged, hands, legs tied with ropes and mouth gagged. He was found blind folded in a very poor state of health and hygiene. One of the abductors, identified as Saurabh was apprehended while others managed to escape," said Sanjeev.
During interrogation, Saurabh revealed the name of his other associates as Minto, Sonu, Guddu, Adesh and Sunil.
"On Monday, they had lured the victim into a trap from outside Dilshad Garden Metro Station at about 7:00 PM. They took him to Gagan Vihar on some pretext and confined him in a room. He was administered drugs in milk and forced to consume alcohol. All the perpetrators were promised Rs 10 lakh or above as share from the ransom amount," said Sanjeev.
