The police have arrested both the accused (Representational)
A driver and his relative were arrested from Mumbai's suburban Andheri for allegedly staging the kidnapping of a builder's two children, the police said on Wednesday. The driver worked for the builder and staged the kidnapping in an attempt to extort Rs 1 crore, they added.
During the interrogation, the driver admitted that he had conspired to kidnap the twins to get money for his daughter's marriage, an official said.
"The incident came to light when the father of the children, a real estate developer, approached the police on Monday evening with the complaint that his two kids had been kidnapped," he said.
"The father said the kidnappers had beaten up the driver before taking the children away when they were on their way back home from Juhu," the official said.
A kidnapper allegedly forcibly opened the car door and threatened the children and the driver and took their car near the Juhu PVR area, the complaint said.
"During the journey, the kidnapper gave sedatives to the children and the driver. It said the kidnapper got down with one child and the driver and put them in a school bus, while the other child was kept in the car near Juhu PVR," he added.
After that, six more came on three bikes and took the car driver out of the bus and took him on Juhu-Versova Road and allegedly thrashed him, the complaint said.
By that time, a police team reached the Juhu PVR area and rescued one child, while the second child escaped with the help of people and alerted his family members about the incident.
"Meanwhile, the twins' mother received a call asking for Rs 1 crore," the police official said.
"But as there were loose ends in the complaint, the police started interrogating the car driver. After questioning him for 18 hours, he told the police that he had staged the kidnapping drama to get Rs 1 crore from his employer for his daughter's marriage," he said.
The accused driver had also called one of his relatives from Delhi to be a part of the conspiracy and had promised him half the extortion money, he said.
The police have arrested both the accused and claimed to have cracked the case.
An FIR has also been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.