By IANS
New Delhi : A letter from a prankster calling himself “Chambal Ghati Ke Sher” and demanding ransom of over Rs.1.1 million in exchange for a missing 17-year-old youth kept the police on their toes for nearly seven months till they found the boy in a Haridwar jail.
The police began searches in March after one Vinay Upadhyaya registered a case with the Najafgarh police station in southwest Delhi stating that his cousin Rama Kant had been abducted outside his house on March 8. The police began investigations and visited several locations in Etawah, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat in the process.
“In the first week of June, the victim’s father received a letter that read ‘Chambal Ghati Ke Sher’ and demanded a ransom of Rs.11,510,521 for the release of the boy. The money was asked to be delivered in Etawah,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest District) Shalini Singh.
Several teams were sent to Etawah, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat, but no clue was found about the kidnapped boy or the kidnappers.
“On Aug 29, a missed call from Haridwar was made at the cell phone of Rama Kant’s father. Following the call a team was sent and it was found that Haridwar police had arrested Rama Kant for providing false information about his whereabouts,” Singh said.
“During investigations it was revealed that the ransom letter was written by a prankster, who had seen some posters put up by the family of the missing boy offering a reward to anyone finding him,” she added.
After being released by a city court in Haridwar, Rama Kant told police that he left home due to mental depression without informing his family.
He took a train to Baroda and visited different places – Jamnagar, Kota, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mathura, Agra and Mumbai.
“For the last two months Rama Kant was in Haridwar, where he was living at a ‘langar’ at Har Ki Pauri,” Singh said.