Rajasthan Police bust extortion racket, rescue 3 hostages

Tribune News Service

Ropar, November 30

While the district police remained in a slumber for months, a gang of extortionists held three persons hostage in a private school building at nearby Muzafta village. A team of the Rajasthan Police conducted a raid on November 26 and managed to rescue three hostages and nabbed the kingpin of the extortionists, identified as Arun Kumar Sharma (59), a native of Bihar.

Though Ropar SSP Vivek Sheel Soni as well as Superintendent of Police (Investigation) HS Atwal feigned ignorance about the case, SP Vikas Pahtak from Kota in Rajasthan said three persons, including two belonging to Kota, were rescued by them from Muzafat village near Chamkaur Sahib.

All three victims were in captivity of the accused for nearly a month as their relatives had not paid the ransom demanded by the accused. The victims were construction contractors who were taken to Ropar by the accused on a fake promise of landing them big contracts there, said the police.

Pathak, the brother of a hostage, Devkinandan Sharma, had filed a complaint in Kota. According to the complainant, Devkinandan had left for Ropar on October 21 and his wife received a call from his mobile phone number last week demanding a ransom of Rs 20 lakh.

On November 17, the police got a similar complaint from the family of another victim, Bharat Singh, alias Rinku. On investigation, both calls were traced to Muzafat village of Ropar district and a raid was conducted with the help of the local police, said the SSP.

The police found that along with Devkinandan and Rinku, another victim Tapeshwar Mukhiya had been kept hostage by the accused. The victims also told the police that one more unidentified hostage had managed to flee from the captivity a few days ago.

The Kota SSP said Sharma along with others used to take the victims to a portion of a private school building and tortured them to demand ransom from their relatives. The police were in search of other accused also, said Pathak.

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