10 August,2009 07:15 AM IST | | Prawesh Lama
Chandni Chowk merchant's son kidnapped, released after the payment of a whopping Rs.2 crore
This story has it all. Action, emotion, drama and all the elements of a Bollywood thriller. Yet nobody knows about it.
It may well qualify to be one of the most commendable operations by the Delhi Police, yet even the force is not ready to speak about it.
Phew!
Nikunj Mittal, son of Chandni Chowk-based businessman Rajeev Mittal, was abducted from Kashmere Gate on July 30 while driving a new car gifted by his father on his birthday.
Rajiv immediately called up the police on police assistance no. 100. However, even before he could file a formal complaint, Rajiv got a call from the kidnappers threatening him that if he files a complaint his son would be harmed.
The abductors who are now in the custody of the police demanded Rs four crore as ransom. But, Rajiv said he could not pay such a huge amount.
However, after much negotiation the price for his son's head was fixed at Rs 2 crore. Though Nikunj had been kept at Bakarwara village in Nangloi, outer Delhi, the kidnappers asked his father to deliver the amount at Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Nikunj was immediately released and reunited with his family.
However, Rajiv has denied paying any ransom money for the release of his son. But, the police, who had been kept out of the action by the Mittal family, got a "specific tip-off" and arrested the two abductors from Sagarpur, Janakpuri on Friday.
Apart from a pistol, the cops recovered Rs 1.32 crore from their possession. However, Rajiv Mittal, a copper merchant, remained adamant that he did not pay anything to the abductors.
"We got leads from the family servant who appeared to be a shady character. His role in the case is not very clear so we are still interrogating him. Sachin, one of the accused, got a mobile phone connection with a fake identity to negotiate with the victim's family. After the boy was released, the family did not help us but we received inputs and arrested the two kidnappers from Delhi. The ransom money was also recovered which they had hidden under their bed," said a senior police official, requesting anonymity.u00a0
Sources also confirmed that the sleuths of the operation cell were still raiding various hideouts in the city probing the involvement of other persons in the case.u00a0u00a0u00a0
Is Delhi going the Bihar way
In a chilling reminder of the kidnapping business in the pre-Nitish Kumar Bihar, many abduction cases have come to light in the national capital recently. Bihar saw a whole industry running on the money paid by high-profile people who were either abducted or threatened to be kidnapped by the mafia. More than 32,000 cases of kidnapping were reported between 1992 and September 2004 in the state, about 20 per cent of these for ranson, according to police records.
A Chandni Chowk businessman, on condition of anonymity, told MiD DAY: "We fear for the lives of our family members. I hope the police will do something or the national capital will turn into Bihar during Lalu's reign, when kidnapping became an industry."
Some recent cases
>>On July 30, Ribhu Chawla, a class XI student of the KR Mangalam School in west Delhi's Vikaspuri was kidnapped from outside his house. The kidnappers had also demanded a ransom of Rupees 15 lakh, which was paid by the victim's father, yet the boy was killed. The police recovered the ransom money later.u00a0
>>Naveen Kumar, a 25-year-old private bank employee, was abducted for ransom in Pandav Nagar, East Delhi on July 24. The abductors had demanded a ransom of Rs 25 lakh and later murdered Naveen in panic, as the victim knew them. The police arrested three people in connection with the case.
>>On July 21, the maternal grandfather and uncle of a two-year-old boy abducted him. The boy was the son of a security agency owner. The police arrested the duo two weeks later and reunited the boy with his family.
