Kanpur: Kidnapped youth’s sister busts cops’ ransom claim

KANPUR: While Kanpur police grapples with fallout of the Bikru ambush, the botched rescue operation of a kidnapped youth, Sandeep, has put it again in a spot. Another video surfaced on Wednesday evening in which Sandeep's sister, Ruchi, is heard accusing crime branch officials of forcibly recording her statement that ransom was not paid to kidnappers although the family paid the amount at police's behest.
Local police had landed in a soup when family members of the kidnapped youth alleged on camera that police made them pay a ransom of Rs 30 lakh to kidnappers, but failed to rescue the captive.
On being questioned by the media for backtracking from her earlier statement, the girl said, "Crime branch personnel Dinesh Yadav visited my house on Wednesday and convinced me to change my statement as my brother's life is in danger. Out of fear, I gave the statement as per his advice, which he soon made viral on social media. However, the truth is my parents paid the ransom amount of Rs 30 lakh on the advice of Barra police."
The girl went on to add that the day her brother would return, she will provide media with complete details on arrangement of Rs 30 lakh ransom money.
Police had earlier even given a statement and accused Ruchi, sister of the victim, of spreading lies with regard to ransom amount. SP South Aparna Gupta also made statements on Twitter about projecting girl's information to be false.
To recall, Chaman Singh of Barra area stated the ransom was paid from the amount that he had saved for the marriage of his daughter after selling his house. Police had asked the family to pay the ransom and planned to nab the kidnappers when they came to collect it. The kidnappers, however, managed to collect and flee with the bag full of cash even as cops looked on, he said.