UP Gutkha Trader's Grandson Rescued, Kidnappers Who Posed as Health Dept Officials Held After Encounter

A six-year-old grandson of a trader was rescued and four people who allegedly abducted him were arrested after an encounter in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda district on Saturday, officials said. Some persons, allegedly carrying identity cards of the Health Department, had come to a locality in Colonel Ganj on Friday afternoon on the pretext of distributing masks, according to police.

The grandson of gutkha trader Rajesh Kumar Gupta was standing at a distance when the suspects approached him to give hand sanitiser and pulled him inside the vehicle. Later, the family got a call from a woman for a ransom Rs 4 crore, a police official said. In a joint operation, the special task force (STF) and the police rescued the child and arrested four kidnappers following an encounter, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said.

The car used for kidnapping and three weapons have also been recovered, Awasthi said, adding that two of the abductors had also suffered injuries during the encounter. A reward of Rs 2 lakh has been declared for the joint team of the STF and police, which successfully carried out the operation, the official added.

ADG Law and Order Prashant Kumar also reached the spot on Saturday morning. The STF recovered the Alto car used in the kidnapping, a .32 bore pistol and two 315 bore pistols.

Speaking to the media after the incident, ADG Law and Order Prashant Kumar said, “Several police teams were deployed immediately after FIR was lodged in the incident. This morning an encounter took place at village Para after getting a tip-off from an informer. The kidnappers were taking the child to another place by car and during the encounter, the kidnapped child-Namo was recovered safely and the two kidnappers Umesh Yadav and Deepu Kashyap were injured. At the same time Suraj Pandey, his wife Chitra Pandey and his younger brother Raj Pandey were arrested. Injured miscreants are undergoing treatment.”

ADG Law and Order Prashant Kumar also informed that reward was announced by the state government for the teams involved in working out the case and the investigation was still going on to ascertain if some more people were involved in kidnapping.