Noida: 19-year-old man abducted by ‘escort’ gang, FIR filed

Noida: A 19-year-old man has allegedly been abducted by an “escort” gang from Phase II in Noida. The victim’s family has filed a police complaint alleging the gang

Noida: A 19-year-old man has allegedly been abducted by an “escort” gang from Phase II in Noida. The victim’s family has filed a police complaint alleging the gang was demanding ₹50,000. The victim, Ajay, from Badaun, used to live at his cousin Omendra Pal’s place in Kakrala village in Noida Phase II.

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Omendra said that Ajay had shifted to Noida last year in search of a job. “He was involved in some odd jobs for a few months. On October 25, he went missing from home. We launched a search and also informed our relatives but could not find him. Two days later, we filed a missing complaint at the Phase II police station,” he said.

He said that the police scanned Ajay’s mobile phone’s call details and found that he had allegedly spoken to one Pintu Saini, a resident of Rajasthan, in the past few days. “I contacted Pintu. He said that Ajay has joined a male escort service. I asked him to facilitate a phone call with Ajay but he refused. The suspect demanded ₹50,000 for the safe release of my brother,” Omendra alleged.

He claimed that he has phone call recordings of this conversation with Pintu. The family suspects the victim is at risk and demanded the police swiftly recover him.

Anita Chauhan, SHO, Phase II police station, said that based on the complaint a case was registered against the suspect under Section 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) of IPC on December 5 after primary investigation. “We sent a team to Rajasthan which questioned Pintu. During interrogation, we found that he had sent some photos of random girls to Ajay’s mobile phone and extracted money on the pretext of facilitating his friendship with the girls. But we did not find Ajay at his place,” she said.

She said that the victim’s family revealed that Ajay had allegedly sold his mobile phone to someone a few days before he went missing. “We have put his mobile number on surveillance. However, his SIM card has not been in use since then,” she said.

Chauhan said the police teams are investigating the matter from all angles and trying to locate the victim.