Kidnapping case may have more to it: Attingal police

The Attingal police, on Tuesday, said there was “more to it than meets the eye” in a case relating to the alleged kidnapping of Naveed, a college student from Varkala, on July 5.

The student had presented himself at a traffic police station in Kannur last weekend. A police team, which had gone in search of him to Kolkata, reached Kannur and took his custody. The youth was produced before a court here and he was subjected to medical examination.

R. Pratapan, Dy.SP, Attingal, said the youth maintained that three persons travelling in a van stopped him at Varkala while he was on the way to college, and asked directions in a “strange language.” Two of them hustled him into a van and sped away. He woke up later in a locked room in a region he could not identify. He was kept bound in the room for several days.

In the meantime, his father here received a call from a telephone booth in Kolkata, demanding Rs.2 lakh as ransom for letting his son go unharmed. The person who demanded the money had spoken to the youth’s father in Hindi. The complainant had also recorded the ransom call.

The youth told the police that his captors released him several days later. They took him in an autorickshaw to the Mysore bus stand and gave him Rs.500. They asked him to take a bus to Kerala.

The youth contacted his father when he reached Kannur. The father informed the Attingal police, who called the youth and asked him to report to the nearest police facility.

Mr. Prasanthan said it was too early in the investigation to state whether the youth was bluffing or not. He said some relatives of the youth could be involved in the episode. The investigation into the case was still on, he said.