In a joint operation, police teams of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday arrested the kidnappers of Gaya-based doctor and his wife from an apartment in lucknow. The kingpin of the abduction gang Ajay Singh, a life convict from Aurangabad in Bihar, was out on parole. He was earlier convicted in the abduction of a Jaipur jewellers’s wife in 2003.
Pankaj Gupta and his wife Shubhra Gupta were kidnapped near Barachatti in Gaya district last Friday while returning from Giridih in Jharkhand. Their Audi was also recovered, along with two other SUVs and ammunition, from Sharda Apartment. Police sources said that the couple was tranquilised and dumped near the Allahabad Railway Station late on Tuesday, “On regaining their consciousness they returned home.”
The kidnapping had created a political storm in Bihar. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is currently in Delhi, phoned his UP counterpart Akhilesh Yadav and thanked him and his police for rescuing the couple. A day earlier, Nitish had urged Yadav’s help in cracking this high-profile case. The main accused, Ajay Singh’s father Mangal Singh is a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police, his brother is an officer in Patna Municipal Corporation. Ajay had also contested the lok Sabha elections from Chatra constituency on the ticket from former PM Chandrashekhar’s party before being convicted.
While serving jail term, he had sought permission to contest Assembly elections from Taraiya constituency in Saran district in 2010 but was refused permission. Singh was awarded life term in the high-profile kidnapping of a 60-years old woman Sumedha Durlabhji, wife of diamond merchant Rashmikant Durlabhji in Jaipur in Rajasthan in 2003..
In 2011, when he did not return to Jaipur jail after being released on parole, he is believed to have taken shelter in Gaya, and reorganised his gang. Ajay invariably carried out the kidnapping police uniform as he did in case of the Gaya doctor. The UP Police have recovered several uniforms of Bihar and Jharkhand police as well as that of police commandoes.
Other members of the gang have been identified as Mritunjay Kumar, Beetu Kumar, Vijay Kumar, Amit Singh, Sunil, Amit Kumar, Shrvan Kumar, amd Anil singh. Giving details, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Arvind Kumar Jain said during the rescue operation, the police also recovered three sophisticated weapons and a huge cache of ammunitions besides a huge number of vehicle registration number plates, a purse containing ornaments of the victim’s wife.
Jain said that the kidnappers were tracked through surveillance of the STF in coordination with the Bihar police. “The police collected the details about the Fortuner SUV which was involved in several cases of kidnapping in the past. The police was tipped off about the vehicle after which it tracked the vehicle. During the operation, a team of UP STF sleuths and Bihar police in civvies surrounded the apartment from all sides. The inmates were asked to co-operate and the kidnappers were asked to surrender and finally they were nabbed,’ he said. The same group is suspected to have kidnapped a stone crusher Ravi Ranjan and two his employees on January 22, 2015 and had realized a ransom of Rs 30 lakh for safe release of the victims.