Five arrested for kidnapping 20-year-old DU student, demanding ₹15 lakh ransom

Five men were nabbed by Ghaziabad police early on Thursday morning for allegedly kidnapped their 20-year-old friend — a Delhi University student — and demanding

Five men were nabbed by Ghaziabad police early on Thursday morning for allegedly kidnapped their 20-year-old friend — a Delhi University student — and demanding Rs 15 lakh as ransom from his parents. Police said that the prime suspect had lured the victim to a house in Khoda on the pretext of getting him to meet a girl.

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The five suspects were identified as Harshit Thakur, Sudhir Kumar, Sanjay Kumar, Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Asif. Investigators said that the suspects wanted money to fuel their extravagant lifestyle and hence plotted the kidnapping of their friend – Saurabh Shukla who is resident of Master Park in Khoda. The cops said that all the arrested suspects are in the age group of 20-22 years.

“The man went with the prime suspect on his bike on the morning of Wednesday and did not return till late night. It was then that his family first launched a search for him and then informed the police and an FIR was registered,” said Anshu Jain, circle officer (Indirapuram).

The FIR was registered under IPC sections 364a (kidnapping for ransom) and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) at Khoda police station. The victim and the suspect are residents of Khoda locality.

After the man went missing, his parents started getting ransom calls from in which the caller demanded that they cough up Rs 15 lakh. The calls were being made by using the Saurabh’s phone. On the basis of electronic surveillance and local information, the police conducted a raid on the sixth-floor room in a building at Navneet Nagar locality in Khoda.

“They found the victim tied up and five suspects present in the room. In between, victim’s family also told us that their son was last seen with Harshit Thakur. At this we nabbed Harshit from the spot and grilled him, during which he disclosed the entire plot. The victim was safely rescued released,” Jain added.

While in captivity, Saurabh’s hands and legs were tied up, while his mouth was also taped. The suspects also prepared a video showing the victim in captivity.

The cops said that they will be adding IPC section of 120b (criminal conspiracy) to the ongoing investigation. They added that the victim’s family approached the police at around 10.40pm on Wednesday and the five suspects were arrested around 3.30am the next day.