City student abduction: Three Engg students among 5 held

The Commissionerate police on Monday achieved a breakthrough in a case of abduction of a student for ransom from the Chandrasekharpur area on February 26 and arrested five persons, including three engineering students, in connection with the incident.

The accused had kidnapped Gaurav Rath while he was returning from tuitions at Damana Square.

The arrestees were identified as Gopal Krushna alias Gopi Mohapatra, Subhraj alias Teetee Behera, Abhijit alias Chintu Mishra, Soumya Ranjan Mohapatra and Siddharth Mohapatra.

Police Commissioner YB Khurania said the five accused hailing from Puri had hatched a conspiracy to abduct some rich youths for money. When their attempts failed, they kidnapped Gourav.

The accused had trapped the 17-year-old boy through Facebook. They had developed a friendship with the victim through a girlfriend of theirs by using a fake Facebook ID. Later, they kidnapped him after getting all the details about him.

The abductors had kept Gaurav in Puri for a couple of days. However, they shifted their hideout to Bomikhal in Bhubaneswar after the victim’s mobile got switched on accidentally.

They had called up Gaurav’s father Prasant Kumar Rath demanding a ransom of Rs 11 lakh. However, after he expressed his inability to pay the amount, they settled for a ransom of Rs 2 lakh. Later, the kidnappers left the victim near Raghunathpur in February 28 night after his father paid the money.

After a case was registered by Gaurav’s family on February 27, the Chandrasekharpur police formed a special team to solve the case. The team swooped down on a house in Bomikhal on Sunday. From there, three youths were picked up for interrogation. Moments later, a blast occurred at that house causing damage to property. It was suspected that the accused had caused the explosion in a bid to destroy all the proof of the kidnapping plot.

After rounds of interrogation, the arrested persons revealed that the mastermind of the crime was Gopal Krushna Mohapatra.

The police also recovered Rs 1.7 lakh, a sword, a car, a motorcycle, five mobile phones and a laptop from the possession of the accused. The cops are on the lookout for the girl who used to make calls to the victim.

Now, the Police Commissioner has advised people to be careful while using social media to prevent them from falling prey to internet fraudsters.