A 27-year-old UPSC aspirant, who was reportedly inspired by some Bollywood films to kidnap a five-year-old boy and seek a ransom of Rs 20 lakh, was nabbed on Wednesday.
Police claimed within nine hours it managed to trace the kidnapper and subsequently rescue the child. The accused, according to police, had to repay a loan of Rs 5 lakh.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) AK Singla said, “we have arrested one Asif Saifi, who kidnapped a five-year-old boy from near his house in Bhajanpura area.”
Police said that Saifi confessed that he had a debt of Rs 5 lakh which he had to repay for a course he had taken to pursue his preparations for UPSC examinations.
On 12 March afternoon the father of the boy reported that his son had gone missing.
The next morning the boy’s father received a ransom call. Following that lead a team under Addl DCP Rajendra Prasad Meena managed to trace the phone from which the call was made.
A senior police officer said, “the kidnapper acted smart and made the ransom call from the phone of a stranger. However, that man managed to identify the kidnapper who was accompanied by a five-year-old boy. Within next four hours, by the time the kidnapper made the second ransom call, the team zeroed down on his location near Dadri bus stand and caught him,” said the officer.
During sustained interrogation, Asif Saifi revealed that he has completed a degree in B.Tech as well as in M.Tech. For the past one and a half year, he has been preparing for UPSC exams for which he took a loan of Rs 5 lakh from a man who stayed near the house of the kidnapped boy.
For the past one month, Saifi frequently visited the area (Subhash Mohalla) and since past one week, he had been observing the boy. To execute his plans, Asif asked another minor boy to call the five year old, saying that he was his uncle. Subsequently, the accused lured the child to go along with him. Theboy was kept hostage in a community hall in Dadri,” said the officer.
Police said that they were planning to book the minor boy who helped the alleged kidnapper in the case.