Delhi: Man held for staging his own kidnapping to extort Rs 20 lakh from father

On Saturday, a man named Mohd Ajijul Haque, a resident of Bihar’s East Champaran, filed a complaint alleging that his son had gone missing and not responded to his calls for three days.

Haque in his complaint alleged that his wife on Thursday received a voice message from his son’s phone number in which an alleged kidnapper had demanded Rs 20 lakh as ransom. “They received messages on WhatsApp and negotiated with the alleged kidnapper. They struck a deal of Rs 10 lakh and also received a video clip in which their son was crying,” a police officer said.

“Haque also informed us that his son was taking coaching classes in Rajinder Nagar and staying in a rented accommodation in North Delhi’s Wazirabad. He said that he had given Rs 5.4 lakh to his son in September to pay the institute’s fee,” the police officer added.

The police lodged an FIR under IPC Section 364-A (kidnapping or abduction for ransom).

With the help of technical surveillance, the police found that the calls to the complainant were made from Wazirabad and a raid was conducted by the Central district police and the North district police on Sunday. The complainant’s son Mehtab Hashimi was traced at a house in Wazirabad.

During questioning, Hashimi disclosed that he had come to Delhi last year after informing his parents that he would prepare for civil services but started indulging in online gambling.

“He faced huge losses and was in debt. Failing to repay his debt, he decided to stage his own kidnapping to get money from his parents. He only sent all the voice recorded messages and WhatsApp messages to his parents. Section in the FIR has been converted into extortion (384) and Hashimi was arrested,” an officer said.