Home guard, wife & kin held for abducting teen for 20L

Agra: A home guard and four accomplices, including his family members, were arrested for abducting a 16-year-old boy and demanding a ransom of Rs 20 lakh in Etah district. The teenager, identified as Zoaib, was safely rescued by police teams on Wednesday.
According to police, the prime accused, Jai Chand, a home guard posted at Jaithra police station, hatched the kidnapping plan with the help of his wife, two sisters-in-law and an accomplice.
Jai Chand had earlier served at Jasrathpur police station, where he became acquainted with one Asfaq Hussain, a resident of Nadrala village. Hussain’s sons, Shoib and Zoaib, own land worth Rs 2 crore, which allegedly tempted Chand to hatch the plot.
On Tuesday noon, Zoaib, studying in class 11, went to a petrol pump to fill his motorcycle tank near Bhanau Ghat. When he did not return home after a considerable time, his family became concerned and started searching for him but there was no trace of him.
Later that evening, Zoaib called his family and informed them that two women lured him into giving them a ride and threatened him at gunpoint. During the call, the kidnappers demanded Rs 20 lakh ransom if the family wanted Zoaib to return home safely.
Zoaib’s family immediately informed police and filed an FIR. SSP Shyam Narayan Singh formed three teams to investigate the case. Zoaib’s mobile phone was tracked to Jaithra and the cops successfully rescued him from the home guard’s house.
“The home guard, his wife, two sisters-in-law and another accomplice Devendra Pandey were arrested. A sixth accused, Deepak Kumar, managed to escape. An FIR has been registered under BNS 140(2) (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder or for ransom) and the arrested accused have been sent to jail following court orders,” said SHO of Jasrathpur police station Sudhir Kumar Singh.
According to officials, Jai Chand had called his younger sister-in-law from Delhi to lure Zoaib. “Chand is also an accused in a separate case of kidnapping a woman. For the last two months, he had not been assigned any duty,” added Singh.
IG (Aligarh range) Shalabh Mathur has announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for the police teams involved in the successful operation.