Ghaziabad: The son of a police officer who wanted to take over the UP police Police officer exam on Sunday forged his kidnapping to force his family to pay a ransom. The 20-year-old youth tied his hands and feet, managed to take photographs and sent them to his sister, followed by a text message demanding Rs 100,000.
As the son of a police officer, he knew a thing or two about the likely course of the investigation. So he moved on – first in the Ghaziabad area beyond Hindon and then through western Uttar Pradesh. He was finally found and arrested in Lucknow on Monday.
DCP (trans-Hindon) said Nimish Patil Rohit Kumar allegedly had to repay loans he had taken from various apps to invest in cryptocurrency. He claimed that he wanted to invest Rs 60,000 more as he expected higher returns.
On Sunday he left home and went to Bijnor to police examinationHis test was scheduled for the morning. Hours later, he sent the pictures to his sister via WhatsApp. They show him in a state of hostage-taking – gagged and bound with ropes at his hands and feet.
“Rohit spoke to his sister and told her that he had been kidnapped. He then repeatedly sent her SMS messages, always posing as the kidnapper. In one of the messages, he wrote, ‘(Your) brother will be safe only after he sends the money,'” the DCP said.
Rohit’s sister asked for more time to settle the amount and agreed to transfer part of the money to an e-wallet provided by the ‘kidnapper’, but insisted on proof that her brother was safe.
“This time, Rohit sent her a photograph in which a goods train was seen in the background. Although he did not mention the location, Rohit claimed to be in a train. Amidst all these messages, the police noticed an SMS which read, ‘I am hungry, send me a hundred rupees now,'” the DCP said.
While the sister exchanged messages with the “kidnapper” late into the night, Rohit’s father Krishna Gopal, a constable of the 41st PAC Battalion, filed a police complaint early on Monday morning. Five police teams from Kaushambi, the trans-Hindon SWAT team and the Crime Branch got ready to track down the youth.
During the investigation, the police found that the first pictures and texts were sent from the Modinagar youth’s cellphone to Rohit’s sister. The location of the phone then kept changing – from Modinagar to the city of Ghaziabad, then to Badaun, Shahjahanpur and finally to Lucknow.
“The youth was deliberately changing cities, which made our work difficult. His last whereabouts were traced to Naka Hindola area of Lucknow. When one of the police teams reached the scene around 6 pm, they found several restaurants nearby. Rohit was found alone outside one of these restaurants,” the officer said.
Rohit was brought back to Ghaziabad the same evening. On Tuesday, he was arrested under Section 140 (2) of the BNS (kidnapping for ransom, etc.).
