Couple stages kidnap of 4-year-old, husband arrested by Khandeshwar police

Khandeshwar police have arrested a 25-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh for kidnapping and trying to extort Rs10 lakh from his wife’s uncle; Couple – the accused and his wife – staged a kidnap and tried to extort the money from her uncle, Vinayak Singh (39) by kidnapping the latter’s four-year-old son

Khandeshwar police have arrested a 25-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh for kidnapping and trying to extort ₹10 lakh from his wife’s uncle. The accused, Vipin Agrahari and his wife, Shalu Singh (20), staged a kidnap and tried to extort the money as ransom from her uncle, Vinayak Singh (39), by kidnapping his four-year-old son.

Couple stages kidnap of 4-year-old, husband from UP arrested by Khandeshwar police. Wife to be arrested soon, say police. (HT FILE)

Agrahari and Shalu were fed up with the alleged frequent casteist slurs and taunts by her family over marrying a ‘lower caste’ man and wanted to teach her family a lesson. Shalu had been staying with her uncle for close to a week. On Monday evening, she stepped out with her four-year-old cousin on the pretext of buying medicine. After a few hours, Vinayak and his wife started getting calls for ransom to release the duo. He rushed to Khandeshwar police station and registered a complaint.

Police investigations revealed that Shalu, her cousin and Agrahari had taken a train to CST, then to Bandra and while at Khar, Navi Mumbai police reached the place and nabbed them in the wee hours of Monday.

Initially, police believed that Shalu was a victim in the case. It was discovered that she too was a party to the plot. “We would be making Shalu a co-accused in the case and would arrest her,” an officer said.