Ghaziabad: 20-year-old fakes kidnapping for ransom after losing ₹1 lakh

On Sunday, 20-year-old Abhishek Kumar, a resident of Razapur, Ghaziabad, who is pursuing his CA entrance studies, left home around 1.30pm. A few hours later, his father received a call from him saying he had been kidnapped in a van by unidentified men. He said the kidnappers wanted ₹5.5 lakh to free him. His father rushed to the police at 7.30pm and filed a complaint. Within a few hours, the police traced the call to a hotel in Paharganj, Delhi, where they found Abhishek safe and sound.

It turned out Abhishek had lost ₹1lakh in the share market last week, so he faked his kidnapping to get more money and divert his family’s attention from the loss, said police.

Police said that investigation revealed that Abhishek, after leaving his house on Sunday afternoon, boarded a Metro train and reached Paharganj near New Delhi railway station. “He took a hotel room and called his father from his mobile phone. He told his father that he was kidnapped by unidentified men in a van. Since he never switched off his mobile phone, we traced the phone and found him,” said Abhishek Srivastava, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) of Kavi Nagar circle.

“We brought Abhishek to Ghaziabad and questioned him. He said that five days ago he borrowed ₹1 lakh from his father to invest in stocks. He lost the money and made up the kidnapping story to get more money and divert his family’s attention,” ACP Srivastava added.

Abhishek’s father, Arun, had filed a complaint based on which police registered a first information report under Indian Penal Code Section 364a (kidnapping for ransom). Police said that the kidnapping case would be expunged and Abhishek would be taken to court to make a statement before a magistrate under Section 164 (recording of confessions and statements) of the Criminal Procedure Code.