A teenager was arrested for allegedly staging his own abduction and seeking ₹3 crore ransom from his family, the police said on Tuesday. The accused confessed that he faked his own abduction to extort money from his family to buy a car.
A resident of Krishna Colony had approached the police with a written complaint on March 29 that her son, Sandeep, 19, had gone to Sector 5 for cricket practice, but did not return.
Family owned land
She told the police that she had received a call and the caller wanted to speak to her nephew Naveen who was pursuing legal studies. She suspected that her son was abducted. The woman told the police that the family owned land in Bhiwadi, Tijara and several other places, but most of it was under litigation.
The Manesar Traffic Police had found Sandeep the same evening, loitering around suspiciously, but the teen told the police during interrogation that he did not remember anything. He also did not reveal much in his statement before the magistrate and his statements appeared to be self-contradictory.
Sandeep broke down during sustained interrogation and told the police that he had staged his own abduction to extort money from his family. He said that he wanted a car, but his family had refused to buy him one.
As per the plan, he left his two-wheeler outside a temple in Sector 5. He took lifts from different vehicles to reach Dharuhera in Rewari. He befriended a scavenger and paid him ₹500 to make a ransom call to his mother. Since the boy knew that his mother could not arrange the huge sum, he asked the caller to speak to his cousin Naveen.
Sandeep, a Class XII student, has been charged with extortion and destruction of evidence.