The Delhi Police has solved a sensational kidnapping case wherein 28-year-old businessman Saurabh Gupta was abducted near his showroom in West Delhi’s Paschim Vihar on December 9. With the arrest of two men, including the former employee of the businessman on Monday morning, police managed to rescue Saurabh in 22 hours. The accused, Manish (23) and Satnam Singh, both used to work in sale and purchase of old cars.
“They had changed the number plate of the car in which they abducted Saurabh. However, they made the mistake of calling from Saurabh’s mobile number. Even though they switched off his phone, they used his SIM in
their handset, thinking they will not be caught. Manish confessed to having hatched the plan to kidnap the businessman since he wanted to start his personal life,” said a senior investigator.
The accused knew that since the father of Saurabh Gupta owned 52 electronics showrooms in Delhi, the family will easily shell out crores of money to save their son’s life.
On the evening of December 9, Saurabh Gupta was leaving his wholesale electronics showroom in Paschim Vihar for his home in Karampura. “Saurabh was supposed to leave 7 pm but when he did not return home by 9.30 pm, his family members became worried and started calling on his phone. However, a person picked up and said that Saurabh has been kidnapped by them and they will talk on Whatsapp,” said a senior police investigator.
Saurabh’s father then approached the police, who started investigation. On the next morning, i.e. December 10, the kidnappers demanded Rs 5 crore as ransom money for safe release of Saurabh. Following this, a case was registered at Paschim Vihar police station on December 10.
Soon the Special Staff unit too joined Paschim Vihar police team in the probe.
During the investigation, cops found that the kidnappers had made one call to Saurabh’s father using Saurabh’s SIM card. But later, they started making Whatsapp calls to Saurabh’s family. This gave the police chance to track the kidnappers through the mobile’s IMEI number.
MN Tiwari, DCP (Outer) said, “On December 11, Tuesday, we received a tip-off that a Wagon R car has been spotted in a suspicious condition at Nilothi Extension. A team under Inspector Sukhbir Malik (Special Staff) laid a trap and apprehended Manish (23) and Satnam Singh (44) and safely rescued Saurabh Gupta.”
Investigators said that the team had laid a trap for an entire night on December 10 before eventually arresting the kidnappers.
The team had received an information about the Wagon R car. Suspecting that the accused would come, they punctured the tyre of the car. On Monday morning, when Satnam came out of the house and saw the puncture around 9.15 am, he went inside. Thirty minutes later, Satnam, Manish brought out Saurabh. They were waiting for a cab when they were apprehended.
The team also physically searched for 250 houses in the Nilothi area when they managed to trace the IMEI of the SIM from which the call was made.
During sustained interrogation, the accused disclosed that they had negotiated the ransom amount and it was finalised at Rs 2 crore. Manish revealed that he used to work at the Karol Bagh godown of Saurabh five years ago. To earn quick money and to start his new married life, he hatched a plan to kidnap Saurabh and asked Satnam to join in.”