The culprit's mother and a former municipal councillor were key conspirators in the open kidnapping of Shruti (16) at gunpoint from her house here on September 24, the police have said.
Navjot Kaur, mother of Nishan Singh, main suspect in the incident at Dogra Basti here; and Dimpy Samra, a former municipal councillor from Ward 17 of Faridkot, had hatched the plot and executed it with the help of four other people, including a girl, senior superintendent of police Gurinder Singh Dhillon stated at a press conference here on Thursday.

"Navjot Kaur was on regular touch with Samra on cell phone since September 20 when she had visited Shruti's house to threaten her parents, as the call details have reveled," said SSP Dhillon. "The two followed the plan to its execution at 9.45am on September 24."

A girl worked behind the scenes to help Nishan Singh abduct Shruti, the police have added. "This girl was in touch with Nishan's friends but she is not from Faridkot." Said the SSP. "We have identified all actors in this crime. Suspects Varinder Sharma and Kuldeep Kumar are in police custody, and among others, we are close to arresting Ghali of Dashmesh Nagar in Faridkot."

The SSP claimed to have questioned some of Nishan's Facebook friends. The names of other suspects he chose to hide to maintain the confidentiality of the investigation. "The police are tracking the movements of Navjot Kaur, Dimpy Samra and Nishan Singh," said the SSP. "The kidnapped girl will be saved."

Navjot Kaur and Samra are on the run since the crime. "A wealthy family has kidnapped a girl from a modest family at gunpoint," said SSP Dhillon. "We are taking the crime very seriously." At 19, Nishan Singh has earned 16 serious criminal allegations in just the past three years. In most of the cases, he got away on account of being juvenile. He had kidnapped the same girl even three months ago, and then she was recovered after more than a month.