UP police say they have formed five teams to trace Sanjeev Gupta, who went missing on Saturday.
A ransom call for a staggering Rs 100 crore has been received by the family of an Uttar Pradesh businessman who has been missing for two days, the police said today.
Sanjeev Gupta, based in Firozabad, left his two-storey restaurant on Saturday evening for home but he never showed up. His two phones were also switched off.
Around 1 am last night, Mr Gupta's family allegedly received a message on WhatsApp from an unknown number, asking for 100 crores as ransom.
"The same message has been sent to multiple numbers in the family. The message says that if we try to act clever then he will be killed. The police is investigating, frankly we are unaware of just what exactly they are doing, but we are willing to do anything to secure his safe release," said Vikalp Gupta, a relative of Mr Sanjeev.
Mr Gupta also runs a school and a bangle store in the city around 250 km from state capital Lucknow. He is also a partner in some real estate projects.
The police say they have formed five teams to trace Mr Gupta and that the family has not officially informed them about the ransom message, but they are investigating anyway.
According to senior police officer Ajay Pandey, Mr Gupta's car was found in Aligarh today.
"I am aware that a message about ransom is going viral. I can assure you that I am personally monitoring the case and we hope to make a recovery soon. The car in which Mr Gupta was travelling has been recovered near Aligarh. We are also tracing suspected locations where we think the businessman could be," said Mr Pandey.