The accused extorted Rs 50 lakh of the Rs 1-crore ransom: Police (Representational)
A woman and her three associates were arrested for allegedly kidnapping her employer's son from Ghazipur flower market and extorting Rs 50 lakh of the Rs 1-crore ransom they had demanded, the police said on Saturday.
The accused were identified as Richa Sabarwal, her mother Anita, her boyfriend Gurmeet Singh and Kamal Bansal, they said.
On December 18 at 3.45 pm, a caller, Vikas Aggrawal, informed the Patparganj Industrial Area police station that his son Kinshuk had been kidnapped at gunpoint (using a toy gun) from flower market, Gazipur, and was released later after paying a ransom of Rs 50 lakh, police said.
Kinshuk, a resident of Shalimar Bagh, said that he, along with Richa, who works as flower decorator at his father's banquet, and driver Jitender, went to the Gazipur market for purchasing flowers, police said.
As they entered the car after buying flowers, a person wearing black hood jacket, cap and mask, also barged into the vehicle and pointed a gun at the driver and asked him to speed away towards Ashok Vihar, a senior police officer said.
On the way to Ashok Vihar, the kidnapper made a WhatsApp call to Vikas from Kinshuk's mobile phone and demanded Rs 1 crore, police said.
After a negotiation, Vikas paid Rs 50 lakh at Ashok Vihar. Thereafter, the kidnapper released Kinshuk, Richa and driver Jitender and asked Vikas to drive the car, the officer said.
The kidnapper then asked Vikas to take them towards Dhaula Kuan and got down from the car near Radisson Hotel in Pashchim Vihar after threatening him to pay the remaining Rs 50 lakh, the officer said.
During investigation, police checked around 150 CCTV cameras covering around 70-kilometer distance and identified one suspected scooter. On the basis of the route followed by the scooter, Bansal was arrested. Later, Gurmeet Singh, Richa and her mother were also arrested, senior police official (East) Priyanka Kashyap said.
During interrogation, Gurmeet said that he is the boyfriend of Richa, who is an employee of Vikas. Richa was under a debt running into lakhs of rupees. Gurmeet Singh, Richa Sabarwal and Richa's mother Anita hatched a plan to kidnap Kinshuk and extort money, the DCP said.
On December 16, when Kinshuk asked her to visit the flower market, Richa readily accepted the offer, seeing an opportunity in disguise. The accused managed to get a toy gun and executed the plan the next day. Richa said that she is married and has two children, Ms Kashyap said.
Her husband had suffered huge loss in his business during the coronavirus pandemic and she had to bear all the expenses to run her house. She was paid Rs 25,000 salary per month, the police said.
She had taken huge debt from several people and was unable to pay it back. She was well aware about the strong financial position of Vikas, who used to run two banquet halls in Derawal Nagar, they said.
Therefore, Richa, Gurmeet and her mother Anita hatched a conspiracy to kidnap Kinshuk to get huge amount from Vikas as ransom. A total of Rs 36 lakh have been recovered on the instance of Gurmeet from Richa, Anita and Gurmeet's friend Kamal, the police added.