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Kidnapped Hardoi cloth trader rescued, one held
UP STF rescues cloth trader after encounter with kidnappers in Hardoi. One kidnapper arrested, three others fled. Trader safe, kidnappers demanded ransom of ₹20 lakh.
UP Special Task Force (STF) on Friday rescued a cloth trader after encounter with a gang of kidnappers in Kankapur trisection under Hardoi police station limits, said senior police officials.
The Hardoi cloth trader Ramji Mishra was kidnapped by unknown persons on Tuesday (December 19) evening.
Cops said one of the kidnappers was arrested after he was injured in retaliatory firing by police team while his three aides managed to flee.
In a press statement shared with the media, the STF officials stated that the accused was identified as Vishal Verma of Jaidpur, Barabanki. They said the trader was kidnapped when he was returning home on a motorcycle from his shop in Shahabad area at around 5pm. They said the kidnappers, who were in a car, kidnapped him after intercepting his bike around 200 metres away from his house.
The trader’s family came to know about his kidnapping after they received a call from unknown number demanding ransom of ₹20 lakh.
“The electronic surveillance revealed that the kidnappers were making calls from changed locations every time from the trader’s mobile handset by putting stolen SIM card in it. We laid the trap and surrounded them near Kankapur trisection of Shahabad-Pali Road at around 2 pm on Friday after assuring them through the trader’s family to pay the ransom. The four kidnappers brought the trader to collect the ransom amount in a car when the rescue operation was carried out,” a senior STF official said.
He said the STF, with the help of Hardoi police, managed to safely rescue the trader and arrest one of the kidnappers. Further efforts are on in search of the remaining three kidnappers while the arrested accused will be sent to jail after providing him treatment for his bullet wound.
He said the arrested accused was previously nabbed by the UP STF on February 8, 2021, for his alleged involvement in the contract killing of one Avinash Singh after kidnapping him when he was returning from his food products factory in Sarojini Nagar industrial area on the intervening night of January 30 and 31, 2021. He said the accused Vishal Verma along with three other aides were arrested for the murder for which he had got a contract from the estranged relatives of the deceased.
