UP medical student rescued from abductors, Delhi doctor among 5 held for kidnapping

LUCKNOW: The sleuths of UP Special Task Force (UPSTF) and Gonda police rescued Gaurav Haldar, the 21-year-old kidnapped medical student on Friday and arrested a Delhi-based doctor and his four accomplices. 

Haldar, a student of Bachelor of Ayurveda Medical & Surgery (BAMS), was abducted in Gonda on January 19.

Additional DGP (STF) Amitabh Yash, who led the probe into the case, said that the victim was honey-trapped by a Delhi-based lady doctor, who was a friend of mastermind Dr Abhishek Singh. Dr Singh is an Ayurveda practitioner employed at Rathi Hospital in Najafgarh, New Delhi.

As per the police sources,  Dr Abhishek Singh, along with his accomplices Nitesh, Mohit, Rohit, Satish, and Dr Preeti Mehra, abducted Haldar and demanded a ransom of Rs 70 lakh from his family.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi has announced a cash award of Rs 2 lakh for the team of cops that rescued the victim.

Police teams of Gonda and STF are now working to nab Dr Preeti Mehra who honey-trapped Haldar.

"On January 18, Dr Mehra called Haldar from a phone belonging to passers-by outside his hostel in Gonda. Abhishek and his aides then abducted him," said ADG Amitabh Yash while interacting with media persons.

The officer claimed that the first ransom call of Rs 70 lakh was made to Nikhil, the father of the victim. Nikhil worked at a private clinic in Bahraich. Later, through electronic surveillance, the cops tracked their location to GB Nagar following which the Noida unit of STF was alerted, said Yash.

The captors called the victim's father and demanded Rs 70 lakh on Thursday and instructed him to deliver the money in Lucknow, said the STF. Based on the information, a trap was laid near the Expressway police station and a sedan car was intercepted which suddenly opened fire on the STF team. However, another team overpowered the passengers of the car in which Haldar was also present along with the captors.

In order to confuse the investigators, the accused abducted the victim in Gonda, made the first ransom call from Santkabir Nagar and kept the victim in Delhi.

“The mastermind was Dr Abhishek Singh and his aide Rohit, who also hailed from Haldar's village, gave all the information about Haldar. The abductors fielded Dr Preeti Mehra to lure Haldar,” said the officer.

On the fateful day, Dr Preeti called up the victim and asked him to come out at the college gate in Gonda. Following the call, the victim came out and was abducted in a sedan car and taken to Delhi.

“He was thrashed and also injected drugs to keep him in an unconscious state,” said the police. 

As per the ASP STF, the victim was first taken to Greater Noida and then dumped in the mastermind's Dr Abhishek’s flat number 310, Gloria Apartment of DDA in Bakrawala area of Delhi. Gaurav was injected with drugs to keep him unconscious in captivity, said the STF ASP.

The STF also revealed that the accused had planned Haldar's abduction on last Diwali.

The mastermind of the incident Dr Abhishek Singh had visited Payagpur in Bahraich during Diwali 2020. He had been planning the abduction since then by taking Rohit, Nitesh, Mohit along. While Rohit was Bahraich-based, Mohit, Nitesh, and Dr Preeti all are based in Delhi.

Additional SP (STF) Raj Kumar Mishra said that Nitesh was an accused in a fraud case in Gujarat and to get him bailed out, Abhishek along with Mohit, Rohit and Nitesh planned the abduction.