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Five arrested in Gonda kidnapping case after joint operation by STF, local police in UP
“The kidnapped child has been rescued and all five kidnappers arrested. A reward of Rs 2 lakh has been declared for the STF-Gonda Police team, who successfully conducted the operation,” said Awnish Kumar Awasthi, additional chief secretary (ACS) (home), UP.
A grandson (5) of a wealthy bidi trader, who was kidnapped from eastern Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Gonda district, was rescued after a marathon joint operation of the Special Task Force (STF) and local police personnel in the wee hours of Saturday.
Five persons, including a couple, have been arrested following an encounter between the kidnappers and the STF-Gonda Police team.
“The kidnapped child has been rescued and all five kidnappers arrested. A reward of Rs 2 lakh has been declared for the STF-Gonda Police team, who successfully conducted the operation,” said Awnish Kumar Awasthi, additional chief secretary (ACS) (home), UP.
The child is a grandson of bidi trader, Rajesh Gupta, from Colnelganj in Gonda district, which is located around 90 kilometres east of Lucknow.
The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs 4 crore for the release of the child.
An STF press release identified the kidnappers as Suraj Pandey and his wife Chhavi, the mastermind, along with Raj Pandey, who is related to the couple, Umesh Yadav and Deepu Kashyap, all residents of Gonda district.
Umesh and Deepu have sustained injuries in the encounter between the STF-Gonda Police team and the kidnappers.
Police said a man approached the child’s family on Friday afternoon on the pretext of distributing masks and hand sanitisers, which are in great demand following the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak across the country, for free.
He asked the child to accompany him to the vehicle, where he had kept the masks and hand sanitiser. The boy obediently followed the man, who forcefully put him in the car, and fled away.
A closed-circuit TV (CCTV) footage had captured the kidnapping incident, where a man in a blue shirt and black trousers is seen walking with a boy in a yellow T-shirt. The boy’s family members informed the police after they failed to search him.
Later, the boy’s father received a call from a woman, who demanded Rs 4 lakh as ransom in lieu of his release.
The boy’s family filed a first information report (FIR) with the police about the abduction following which the rescue operation was launched.
All police teams in Gonda and adjoining eastern UP districts were also put on alert.
