'Your brother will be safe only after sending money': UP cop’s son fakes kidnapping to pocket Rs 1 lakh

GHAZIABAD: A policeman’s son who went to take the UP Police constable exam on Sunday faked his kidnapping to make his family pay a ransom. The 20-year-old youth tied his hands and feet, managed to take photos and sent them to his sister, followed by a text message demanding Rs 1 lakh.
Being a cop’s son, he knew a thing or two about the likely course of investigation.So, he kept moving around – first in the trans-Hindon area of Ghaziabad and then through western UP. On Monday, he was eventually found in Lucknow and arrested.

DCP (trans-Hindon) Nimish Patil said Rohit Kumar allegedly had to repay loans which he took from various apps to invest in cryptocurrency. He claimed he wanted to invest Rs 60,000 more as he expected higher gains.
On Sunday, he left home for Bijnor to take the exam. Hours later, he sent the pictures to his sister on WhatsApp, showing him in a state of hostage — gagged and hands and feet tied with ropes. “Rohit spoke to his sister and told her he had been kidnapped. Subsequently, he kept texting her, all the while pretending to be the kidnapper. In one of the messages, he said: ‘(Your) brother will be safe only after sending the money’,” the DCP said.
Rohit’s sister asked for more time to arrange the amount and agreed to transfer some money to an e-wallet that the ‘kidnapper’ shared. But she insisted on proof that her brother was safe.
“This time, Rohit sent her a photograph that had a freight train in the background. While he did not mention the location, Rohit claimed to be in a train. Amid all these exchanges, police noted a text that said: ‘I’m hungry, send a hundred rupees for now’,” the DCP said.
While the sister kept exchanging messages with the ‘kidnapper’ late into the night, Rohit’s father, Krishna Gopal, a constable in the 41 PAC Battalion, filed a police complaint early on Monday morning. Five teams of cops from Kaushambi, the trans-Hindon SWAT team and the crime branch geared up to trace the youth.
During investigation, police found the first set of pictures and texts were sent to Rohit’s sister from the youth’s phone from Modinagar. The phone location subsequently kept changing — from Modinagar to Ghaziabad city, then to Badaun, Shahjahanpur and finally Lucknow.
“The youth deliberately kept switching towns, making our job difficult. His last location was traced to the Naka Hindola area of Lucknow. When one of the police teams reached the spot around 6pm, they found there were several restaurants in the vicinity. Rohit was found alone walking outside one of these eateries,” the officer said.
Rohit was brought back to Ghaziabad later that night. On Tuesday, he was arrested under the BNS section 140 (2) (kidnapping for ransom etc).