Kolkata: A 63-year-old antique dealer, Mohon Chakraborty, was rescued by Kolkata Police on Sunday morning after he was kidnapped in Bihar’s Gaya and a ransom of Rs 40 lakh demanded from his family.
Cops were able to arrest one of the kidnappers and a search is on for the rest. Lalbazar sources said the victim and the arrested individual are scheduled to arrive in Kolkata by Sunday night.
On July 25, Mariyam Chakraborty, the victim’s daughter lodged a complaint at the Chitpore PS that her father’s business associate Tinku Paswan and others kidnapped Mohon and two of his associates. Mohon, a Chandranath Simlai Lane resident, had travelled to Gaya a day earlier in search of an antique artifact. After receiving the complaint, a joint team from Chitpore Police, the Anti-Rowdy Section of the detective department, Gaya police and Bihar STF carried out an operation to rescue Mohon. “The team of accused, led by Tinku Paswan, had trapped the victim by promising to show him an antique piece. The accused had also shared a photograph of that piece with the victim,” said a cop.
Since Mohon was a regular traveller, his family was not worried when he did not contact them for long hours. But after they received a ransom call, they immediately alerted the cops. Sources said the police team convinced the kidnappers to come near a railway track to collect the ransom money. After trapping them, cops nabbed one of the accused. During interrogation, the arrested individual led the cops to the victim. Based on Mariyam’s complaint, cops registered a case against the accused under various non-bailable sections like kidnapping, extortion, wrongful confinement and criminal conspiracy. The police are examining CCTV footage from the crime scene and tracking the phone used to make the ransom call.