Army man, 4 others held for bizman’s kidnapping in Jhansi
The accused picked him up in a tractor trolley and took him to a forest near Moth before relocating him to Chirgaon, he had told police after claiming to have somehow escaped his kidnappers two days later
An army man and four others were arrested on Sunday for abducting a businessman in Jhansi’s Raksa about a week ago, police said, adding two more of their accomplices were still at large.
Madhav Mohan Gupta, 34, who owns an electronics showroom in Jhansi’s Raksa area, was returning home on his two-wheeler after shutting down his store last Monday when he was abducted.
The accused picked him up in a tractor trolley and took him to a forest near Moth before relocating him to Chirgaon, he had told police after claiming to have somehow escaped his kidnappers two days later. Also, the kidnappers had demanded ₹1.5 crore as ransom, according to officials.
Superintendent of police (SP)-City Gyanendra Kumar Singh said Ghanendra Pratap Singh, 33, of Chirgaon, who is presently posted as a gunner in an army unit in Panagarh in West Bengal, was arrested with the help of police’s SWAT team on Sunday. The others arrested in connection with the kidnapping are Mahendra Singh Parmar, 33; Shashikant Pal, 25; Kamlesh Pal, 20 and Suraj and Ahirwar, 24. While Ahirwar hails from Raksa, the others are from Datiya and Niwari in Madhya Pradesh
Ghanendra, said to be the mastermind, staged the kidnapping with his friends to pay off ₹25 lakh he had borrowed for his sister’s wedding, police said. He came back from Panagarh on April 8 to execute the kidnapping, they added.
After Madhav’s father lodged a police complaint after he went missing, five teams were engaged to crack the case. Madhav was able to escape due to help from some locals in Chirgaon, he told the police.
Police have also recovered the tractor used in the kidnapping along with a .32 bore gun and four live cartridges.
The accused reportedly said that they used the tractor since they could not get a car. HTC
