Broke alumnus abducted Bishop Cotton boys

The kidnapper of three Bishop Cotton School students turned out to be an alumnus of the institution. Caught in financial trouble, Sumit Sood, a former Cottonian with an engineering background, devised a plan to abduct the students to ease his monetary woes.

On Saturday, he kidnapped three Class VI students from outside the school and took them to Kotkhai, from where police rescued them the next day.

Investigations revealed that Sood, who had faced repeated failures in business, had been planning the abduction for about a week and executed it on Raksha Bandhan. A senior police officer said, “Being a former student, he was familiar with the school’s town-leave and day-out protocols. Parking his car at Khalini, around two km from the school, he waited for students walking towards the Mall Road. Spotting the three boys, he introduced himself as a former BCS student and offered them a lift.”

“Once they got in, he drove towards Dhalli instead of Mall Road. He threatened them with a revolver and took them to his house at Chaithla village, Kotkhai, about 50 km from Shimla. There, he kept them in confinement on the top floor of his multi-storeyed home. The accused used a California-based virtual number, which he purchased recently, to make ransom calls to their parents,” the officer said.

Explaining how the case was cracked, Shimla SSP Sanjeev Gandhi said the police initially had no concrete leads as multiple students and teachers claimed to have last seen the missing boys at different locations.

“We decided to check every vehicle travelling from BCS towards Khalini. A Delhi-registered car displaying suspicious movements was identified. It was later seen heading towards Theog and Kotkhai,” he said, adding that two Kotkhai residents, Ronak Sharma and Ronak Ramdaik, provided crucial information that helped us trace the accused.

The students were brought safely back to Shimla and further investigations are ongoing, the SSP said.

Meanwhile, Bishop Cotton School’s management announced it would tighten its town-leave and day-out protocols. Headmaster Mathew P John said no student would henceforth be allowed to leave the campus without supervision.