A senior television journalist was abducted, taken hostage for five hours and robbed by three unidentified assailants at Kaushambi in Ghaziabad late Sunday night.
They also withdrew Rs40,000 using the victim’s ATM card. They released him at Baghpat — about 50km from Kaushambi — and fled in his Maruti Swift car, police said.
“I had parked my car at Kaushambi when one of them came and hit my head with a pistol. Soon, two others joined him. They dragged me into the car and drove through Ghaziabad, Meerut and Baghpat,” the victim Ashok Srivastava, a Surya Nagar resident, said.
Through the ordeal, the victim kept hoping his car would be stopped for checking on NH-58. “But no police vans or police posts intercepted the vehicle. They had also covered their faces to evade being caught by CCTVs at the ATMs,” he said.
After driving through Ghaziabad and Meerut, the robbers took to village roads of western UP. “They took me to the jungles and asked me how much my family would be able to pay,” Srivastava said.
When they reached Baraut, they returned him his mobile phone and purse with Rs1,000 and asked him to board a truck to Ghaziabad. After the robbers fled, Srivastava reached a police post and called up his family.
{{/usCountry}}When they reached Baraut, they returned him his mobile phone and purse with Rs1,000 and asked him to board a truck to Ghaziabad. After the robbers fled, Srivastava reached a police post and called up his family.
{{/usCountry}}Circle officer Kamlesh Bahadur said police teams have been sent to identify the places the robbers drove through. “We have recovered his car from Baraut where they had attempted another robbery,” Bahadur said. A case of abduction and robbery against the three unidentified men has been registered.