Close to a year after a 25-year-old jeweller allegedly kidnapped his employer’s son in a desperate bid to repay a heavy debt, the accused has finally been arrested, the police said on Monday. His victim, aged a little over a year, had been rescued soon after being kidnapped last April.
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Ravi Verma, a resident of Shahdara in East Delhi, had invested a significant amount in future trading of gold and had also taken personal loan for the purpose. But he could not repay his debt due to loss in business. So he hatched the plan to kidnap, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Ajay Kumar.
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“On April 17 last year, Khairul Malik, a resident of Gandhi Nagar, reported that Verma, his former employee, had come to his shop and asked for some money which he could not furnish. The next day, his wife Afsana called to tell him that Verma had visited their home and taken their son Arif with him,” Mr. Kumar said.
“Sometime later, Verma called up the complainant and demanded Rs.4 lakh, threatening to harm Arif if he did not pay up. A case was registered and investigation taken up,” Mr. Kumar added.
A day later, the police responded to Verma’s threat by conducting multiple raids across Delhi and neighbouring Ghaziabad in addition to continuously stepping-up psychological pressure on him.
Given the police hunt coupled with the fact that he was not a professional criminal, Verma caught hold of a vagabond, paid him a nominal amount and asked him to drop the child home, abandoning him at the Loni Road near Shahdara, and disappearing on the same day.
“Though the child was rescued, the accused needed to be apprehended. On January 23, with the help of technical analysis and acting on a tip-off, Verma was arrested from Shahbad, District Hardoi, in Uttar Pradesh,” Mr. Kumar added.