Three wanted criminals involved in the sensational kidnapping of a councillor’s son have been arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell. The criminals were on the run after they took a hefty ransom of Rs 1 crore for the release of the son of a councillor from Northwest Delhi two years ago. In 2016, then councillor Shambhu Sharma had reportedly paid a ransom of Rs 1 crore for the safe release of his son, who was held hostage for six days and was released by the kidnappers in Gurugram.
“Manjeet Dabas, Arshu Shokeen and Bhagat were arrested after a brief encounter at the Dwarka Sector 23 area on late Wednesday night,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav.
The three were wanted in the kidnapping of Shambhu Sharma’s, 20-year-old son from Netaji Subhash Place area of Northwest Delhi in 2016. According to a police officer, Manjeet was carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his arrest while Bhagat and Shokeen were carrying reward of Rs 50,000 each declared by the Police Commissioner.
A senior police officer said, “The kidnappers had worn police uniform at the time of kidnapping Shambhu’s son when he was on his way to his college in a BMW car. His car was chased and intercepted by the men in Scorpio car. While the Crime Branch had arrested four associates of Mahesh Thekedar and Manjeet Dabas, Dabas and the other two were absconding. However the son was rescued only after Sharma paid Rs 1 crore to the kidnappers. During the course of investigation, police found that the plan to kidnap was hatched by one Mahesh Thekedar and Manjeet Dabas.
Sleuths of the Special Cell were tipped off about the movement of Arshu Shokeen, following which he was nabbed from Jhajjar on Wednesday evening, while he was driving to meet an associate.
He was taken to Delhi and interrogated where he revealed about the two associates, Manjeet and Bhagat are coming to Darwka Sector-23 late night.
A team of special cell laid a trap and managed to pin them down the duo where they had come on motorcycle. “They were asked to stop but they did not stop and started firing on the police team . They opened fire on our team. Another set of members of our team overpowered them from behind and recovered two fire arms from their possession,” said Yadav.
Police said the all the three criminals have previous criminal records including robberies and attempt to murders.
The DCP said, “During sustained interrogation, the accused revealed that Mahesh Thekedar, who was charged in three cases, had obtained the sub contract of the toll plaza at Tikri Border to Daurala Border.
“It was then that he came in touch with the other accused of the sensational kidnapping case. these men became henchmen of Mahesh Thekedar.
Mahesh Thekedar and Manjeet Dabas conspired to kidnap the son of ex-councillor for making easy money through ransom. They roped in other members.
After kidnapping the then 20-year-old boy, the kidnappers first took him to Sirsa in Haryana.
From there, he was taken to Navalgarh in Rajasthan and later to Hansi and Hisar in Haryana,” added the DCP.