Three Naraingarh youths held for abducting minister’s nephew

Tribune News Service

Ambala, June 20

The Ambala police today arrested three youths in the Hanish kidnapping case. However, a juvenile, who was also involved in the crime, is still at large.

Minister of State for Labour and Employment Nayab Singh Saini’s nephew Hanish, a resident of Mirzapur, was kidnapped and found in semiconscious condition last Friday night.

Those arrested have been identified as Jaspreet, Lovepreet and Vikas Chhilar, all residents of Naraingarh. Vikas and Jaspreet and Hanish study in Government College, Naraingarh, though in different streams. While Hanish is a BSc final student, the accused are BA final students. Lovepreet and Jaspreet are brothers while the juvenile is Vikas’s cousin.

A special investigating team (SIT) comprising Naraingarh DSP Rajbir Singh, CIA inspector Kulbhushan and Naraingarh SHO Kamaljeet was formed to solve the case.

SP Abhishek Jorwal said, “Three youths have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping case but a juvenile is still at large. Vikas had some dispute with Hanish and he along with three other kidnapped Hanish on Friday night. Since they are not professionals, they got scared seeing the active movement of police vehicles in the area and left Hanish on the road near the Begna river. Hanish was later spotted by a passerby who helped him contact his father”.

“To trap Hanish, Vikas created a fake Facebook profile using a girl’s name and started chatting with him. After chatting for over a month, he asked Hanish to meet at Rajju Majra village. When Hanish reached the village, the accused used chloroform to make him unconscious and kidnapped him. They taped his hands and mouth and beat him up. They called up Hanish’s father Chandan Singh for a ransom of Rs 1 crore and later increased it to Rs 2 crore”, the SP added.

He said, “They took Hanish to different places. To misguide the police and Hanish’s father, the accused spoke in the Uttar Pradesh Hindi tone. After finding police movement, they got scared and left Hanish”.

The accused were produced before court today that sent them to a two-day police remand. The car used in kidnapping, Hanish’s mobile phone, a gold chain and some money were yet to be recovered.