American woman faked abduction to blackmail parents: Delhi Police

In an email to her parents, the woman – who came to India as a tourist on May 3 – had mentioned that she was “in an unsafe environment and was assaulted by an unidentified man known to her”.

Delhi Police officers were kept on their toes on Friday by a complaint from the US Embassy in Chanakyapuri that a 27-year-old citizen of their country, who arrived as a tourist in India on May 3, had gone missing after informing her parents back home through an email and a video call that she was “in an unsafe environment, where she has encountered physical and emotional abuse” at the hands of an unidentified individual known to her.

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A case of kidnapping in order to murder or with intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person was registered under relevant Indian Penal Code sections at the Chanakyapuri police station and a team was formed to find and rescue the woman. On Sunday, the city police said she was neither kidnapped nor assaulted; the woman was traced to an apartment in Greater Noida, where she was living with her Nigerian friend. “The woman, the daughter of a former US army officer, had staged the incident to emotionally blackmail her parents,” said deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi) Amrutha Guguloth.

According to police, the woman befriended the 31-year-old Nigerian man on a social networking site and was living with him after her arrival in India. The man, police said, came to India in 2017 to pursue a course in network administration, and has since been living in Greater Noida, Guguloth said, adding that both shared a “passion for singing, which brought them together”. “We found out that the woman’s visa expired on June 6, while the Nigerian man was also overstaying in India following the expiry of his passport. Legal action with respect to their overstaying in India is being taken.”

Police said the US embassy was concerned that the victim was “either incapacitated or being prevented from contacting her family or the embassy”. In an email to her parents, the woman had mentioned that she was “in an unsafe environment and was assaulted by an unidentified man known to her”. She had last spoken to her mother on July 10 on a video call on WhatsApp.

“During probe, police traced and caught the Nigerian national from Gurugram and on questioning, he led them to a residential society in Greater Noida, where the woman was living with him,” said the DCP.