Bihar: Police rescue trader kidnapped for Rs 10 lakh ransom, arrest three from Munger

PATNA: After four days of kidnapping for ransom of Rs 10 lakh, Patna police with the help of its counterparts in Munger, safely recused a betel leave trader and arrested three kidnappers from Chorgaon village under Asarganj police station area in Munger district on wee hours of Saturday.
The recovery was made after police laid a trap to locate kidnappers and victim by sending his family members for ransom delivery at desired location and clandestinely kept tracing their location via an smartphone based instant messaging application.
The victim was identified as Deepak Kumar, aged around 24 years. He lives with his family at New Karbighaiya locality under Jakkanpur police station area in the state capital and owns a betel leave shop near Patna railway junction. He was kidnapped from near Mithapur bus stand in a SUV on morning of January 7.
The arrested kidnappers were identified as Sonu Kumar, Raja Kumar and Ashish Kumar. Sonu and Raja are natives of Samgrampur village under Tarapur police station area in Munger district while Ashish is a native of Rampur village in Banka disitrict. Sonu was mastermind behind Deepak’s kidnapping.
Police said kidnappers were all set to kill Deepak over non-payment of ransom money or slightest possible hint of police trying to nab them.
The victim, while talking to TOI after his safe recovery, said he was kept inside a room with no window.
"Sonu had threatened that he would chop me off into pieces and bury somewhere in jungle after pouring salt so that none can ever trace me," he said.
Deepak said Sonu had befriended him two months back at his shop. "After several days, he suddenly offered me a job with which I can run my shop too. Job location was at Bihta. I was required to work for four hours with Rs 22,000 as monthly remuneration," he said.
Deepak said one day Sonu took me to meet a person whom he identified as his manager to win confidence.
"On January 7 morning, Sonu rang and asked to accompany him to Fatuha in a SUV. However, before getting inside vehicle, he offered me an aerated drink which was spiked. I woke up completely disoriented inside dark room with no windows at Chorgaon," he said.
Jakkanpur police station SHO Mukesh Kumar Verma said kidnappers had used Deepak’s cellphone to make ransom call to his family members due to which police initially had not been able to trace captivity location.
"Deepak’s family members were directed not to leave spot which was fixed for ransom delivery while police kept surveillance on them from far on Friday night. Once kidnappers got assured that police was nowhere in scene, they returned Chorgaon changing ransom delivery time to Saturday morning," he said.
Verma said after police got to know that kidnappers had raided returned Chorgaon, it raided a house in Chorgaon leading to Deepak’s recovery and trio’s arresting.
"Sonu told police during interrogation that he was all prepared to kill Deepak. Police suspects he is involved in several criminal cases about which details are being gathers," he added.