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Bengali news channel scribe wanted for abduction in Kolkata; 3 held
The abductors posed as CBI officers and demanded ₹2 crore from the family initially. The alleged crime took place in the Kasba area of south Kolkata on Monday.
The detective department of the Kolkata Police has arrested three men and is looking for a few more suspects, including a journalist with a newly launched Bengali news channel, in connection with an abduction in which the accused posed as officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to collect a ransom of ₹15 lakh from a family, police said.
The alleged crime took place in the Kasba area of south Kolkata on Monday.
Swarup Roy and Pratik Sarkar, who posed as CBI officers, and Rajesh Adhikari, the driver of the vehicle used in the abduction were arrested. The news channel has issued a statement saying Avishek Sengupta, another prime suspect, was on probation and he has been suspended.
A homemaker, Swity Nath Roy, alleged in her police complaint on Tuesday that her husband Ajit Roy was taken away from home by some men who claimed to be CBI officers. The family started getting ransom calls after the alleged kidnappers left with Roy. The callers initially demanded ₹2 crore but finally settled for ₹15 lakh. A friend of the family gave the money to the kidnappers and Roy was released, said Murlidhar Sharma, joint commissioner of police (crime).
Naming Sengupta in its statement, the channel said, “As an organization with zero tolerance towards such abhorrent criminal acts, the said probationer was immediately suspended on Tuesday evening pending a thorough probe into the matter.”
The channel also said Sengupta was untraceable and could not be reached over the telephone.
Sharma said the police are conducting raids to nab more suspects.
