BCS case: Police to explore kidnapper’s involvement in drug trade

Navneet Rathore

Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 17

Days after arresting Sumit Sood, the man who orchestrated the kidnapping of three class VI students studying in Bishop Cotton School, police has now decided to probe the matter by exploring the possibility of the accused involvement in drug trade. SSP, Shimla Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi said as many as six mobile phones have been found from the accused. He said that it will also be investigated whether he had any links or was involved in any kind of drug trade.

The SSP said that the California-based virtual number from which ransom calls were made also belonged to the accused. He said that the locations from where the virtual calls were made have matched the location where the accused was situated. “His voice samples will now be taken to match with the ransom calls,” he added.

Meanwhile, the SSP Gandhi has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to further probe the case. On August 9, the school management registered a complaint at Police Station, New Shimla, that three of its students, who went for a town leave, were missing, after which a case under section 137 (2) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BS) 2023 was registered and an investigation was imitated. After examining CCTV footage, police identified a suspicious vehicle, bearing Delhi registered number. Police then followed the vehicle and reached Kotkhai region where they were able to nab the accused as well as rescue the students within 24 hours.

During the investigation, it was revealed that the accused was facing financial crunch and multiple failures in business ventures due to which he planned to kidnap students of BCS, a school of which he himself was a student. He had lured the students on the pretext of dropping them to The Mall, but took them to Kotkhai area instead, where he kept them hostage. During this period, he also made ransom calls to the parents of the students and also tried to mislead the by posing as a victim. He claimed that a Nigerian gang was behind the kidnapping whose members, he claimed, were also forcing him to make calls to the parents of the kidnapped kids.