Printing press owner grilled

The police have rounded up a printing press owner on the charge of preparing and providing fake police identity cards to the accused in the Manish Barara kidnapping case.

The police have rounded up a printing press owner on the charge of preparing and providing fake police identity cards to the accused in the Manish Barara kidnapping case.

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The police are questioning the suspect, a resident of New Punjab Mata Nagar who owns a printing press in Model Town. As no case has been registered against him so far, the police have withheld his identity.

The suspect also allegedly made a fake driving licence for Gur Arpan Singh, the main accused in the case, about a month ago. Manish, 26, son of a local industrialist, had been kidnapped on Saturday evening. The police had on Tuesday arrested five people and recovered Rs 4.61 crore of the Rs 5-crore ransom paid.

The police came to know about the printing press owner on the basis of information provided by the accused. The police have also questioned him in front of Gur Arpan and another accused, Deepali Bassi.

S Bhupathi, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Khanna, said the arrested accused had reveal nothing so far about the remaining Rs 39 lakh. The police suspect that the rest of the money is with co-accused Amit and Sahil, who are both at large.

He said the Ludhiana police commissionerate and the Khanna police were investigating the case, even as the Ludhiana police had rounded up several suspects for an interrogation.

Meanwhile, the police produced Gur Arpan before the court on Thursday. The court extended his police remand by another day.