30-year-old Mumbai man fakes kidnapping to escape wife and mother in-law, busted

The man was expected to return in a week and initially, his wife did not find it strange that he had not come home in that time

A 30-year-old businessman from Mumbai staged his own kidnapping in a bid to escape his marriage, police said.

The man claimed that his wife and mother-in-law used to take away the money he earned from his business.(HT Photo/Representational Image)

On June 29, the Andheri-based man, who lives with his in-laws, told his wife and mother in-law he was going to Karnataka for a business trip. Though he was expected to return in a week, his wife did not suspect something was amiss when he didn’t come back. “His wife did not worry initially when he did not return on time as it was usual,” said a police officer.

The man has been married for a year and this is his wife’s second marriage.

The situation changed on July 11 when his mother in-law received a message on WhatsApp claiming the businessman had been kidnapped. It included a photograph of the man, gagged and tied to a chair. The mother in-law and wife then lodged a kidnapping complaint with the police.

“We saw the picture and got suspicious of the way he was tied to the chair,” said a police officer who investigated the case.

A team was sent to the location of the supposed business trip and the police began tracking the man’s mobile phone. The phone’s location was in Ratnagiri district, not Karnataka. On July 12, a team was dispatched to where the mobile had been traced and the police discovered the ‘kidnapped’ man was actually staying with his sister.

“We suspect that the man did not inform his sister about the kidnapping plan but was staying with her,” said the police officer.

The man told the police that he’d staged his own kidnapping because he was unhappy in his marriage. “He claimed that they (his wife and mother in-law) used to torture him and snatch the money which he earned from his business,” said the police officer.

The police, who say they have counselled the businessman, brought him back to Mumbai on July 13.