Ghaziabad businessman abducted for ₹4 crore recovered after 6 days in Greater Noida

Investigation revealed that a few days back, when the suspects visited Gupta’s marble office for some work, they observed that he was rich, and following this, they planned a kidnapping

Greater Noida: A 25-year-old marble businessman, allegedly kidnapped for a ₹4 crore ransom by six people, including a woman, from Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, on September 9 was recovered on Sunday, the Greater Noida police said, adding that he was abducted while meeting a woman he met via social media.

When five of the six suspect, along with the businessman Gupta, arrived in Greater Noida, to collect ransom from his family, police laid a trap and the suspects were arrested. (Representational image)

Police said that they arrested five suspects -- Mohit Gupta and Sumit Kumar from Farrukhabad, Alok Yadav and Shyam Sundar from Kannauj, and Nimay Sharma from Greater Noida, following a gunfight, and efforts are underway to nab the woman suspect.

Shashank Gupta, 25, a resident of Nehru Nagar and businessman, was kidnapped on September 9 around at 12.30am while he was in his Maruti Suzuki Baleno car, police said.

An hour later, as his family received a ransom call of ₹4 crore it searched for him using the GPS fitted in his car. “Tracking the GPS, they reached Yamuna Expressway under the jurisdiction of Dankaur police station around 3am and found the abandoned car,” said an officer, that Gupta’s broken chain and watch were found inside the car.

Subsequently, cops were alerted, and multiple teams from Dankaur, Jewar, Ecotech-1, and Beta-2 police stations were formed to trace the suspects after registering a case under Section 140(3) (Kidnapping) of BNS at Dankaur police station.

“After six days of communication between the suspects and Gupta’s family members, they decided to pay the ransom and a cash collection point was arranged in Greater Noida,” said an officer, requesting anonymity, adding that when they, along with Gupta, arrived in Greater Noida, a team laid a trap and arrested five suspects.

“Mohit and Alok suffered bullet injuries to their legs in retaliatory fire after they opened fire at police. A Mahindra XUV300 and two illegal firearms were recovered from their possession,” said Rajeev Narayan Mishra, Additional Commissioner of Police, Gautam Budh Nagar, adding that efforts are underway to nab the woman involved in their gang.

Meanwhile, investigation revealed that a few days back, when the suspects visited Gupta’s marble office for some work, they observed that he was rich. “Following this, they planned a kidnapping to demand a ₹4 crore ransom and involved a woman in their plan,” said the second senior officer, adding that on September 9, when Gupta met the woman, she took him to Yamuna Expressway on the pretext of meeting a relative who would pick her up from there.

“When Gupta and the woman reached Yamuna Expressway in Dankaur and she alighted from the car, the five men in another car overpowered and kidnapped him. Gupta was taken to one of the suspects’ relatives’ homes in Chhibramau, Kannauj,” said the officer, adding that no injuries were found on Gupta’s body and further investigation is underway to check their previous crime records.

Police also believed that all the phones used in the crime were collected from snatching and other crimes.

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