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For his kids, father was ready to pay ransom
Anshul Gupta (42), director in an Australian firm, broke down finally during the two-and-a-half hour bargain drama with the men who had kidnapped his son and daughter.
Anshul Gupta (42), director in an Australian firm, broke down finally during the two-and-a-half hour bargain drama with the men who had kidnapped his son and daughter. The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs 1 crore in exchange for the children on Tuesday morning.
After nearly three hours of bargaining with the kidnappers and not making any headway, Gupta broke down, agreed to pay the ransom and called his bank manager to arrange for the money from his account.
“The kidnappers refused to relent and kept insisting on the ransom amount for my two children for more than two hours. They even threatened to kill them. They got me to talk to my son. I was terrified. I had told the police that I would go ahead and pay the kidnappers. My children are more important to me than money,” said Gupta.
He said, “I had called up my manager at Citibank to arrange Rs 1 crore from my account. Meanwhile, the police, too, were ready in plain clothes and a bag of money to launch their final offensive. They had asked to me to get ready to reach the drop off spot as directed by the kidnappers. The police had assured me that their men would be following me.”
Gupta said those two-and-a-half hours when he was caught in the bargain between the kidnappers and the police—were the toughest hours of his life.
The breakthrough finally happened when the police mounted pressure on Sachin Bharadwaj by rounding up his wife and threatening him with dire consequences. Bharadwaj agreed to release the children and give up his ransom demand.
“I was more worried about my daughter who has asthma. I feared what if she suffered an asthma attack during the situation. She is in deep shock. She was to celebrate her sixth birthday today,” Gupta added.
However, as if it was still not the end of the ordeal, the police and Gupta were searching for the children somewhere in Gurgaon and Mewat as police did not know of their location till after the bargaining ended. He said, “We rushed to Kapashera border when I received a call from my son and he confirmed his location. I found them sitting on the pavement.”
