High drama unfolded near Kolkata’s RDB building on Tuesday evening when a car swiftly halted next to a 39-year-old tech professional, who was trying to start his motorcycle after work. A few young men got out, forced him into the vehicle and drove away. A security guard who had witnessed the act promptly alerted the police and gave them the vehicle number.
The Bidhannagar Commissionerate police launched a swift operation. Using CCTV visuals, they identified the SUV used in the crime, its owner, located the mobile towers of the car driver, and within two hours, they rescued the kidnapped man, Saha, from Haringhata in Nadia.
The police have arrested six people and seized the white SUV used in the crime, said an officer.
According to investigators, Saha owed Rs 78 lakh to several moneylenders, who reportedly had orchestrated the kidnapping after he repeatedly failed to repay the debt despite their demands.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said that Saha was in front of the RDB building in Sector 5 when a few young men got out of the car and surrounded him.
“Before he could understand anything, they started beating him. When he tried to resist, the miscreants forcibly pulled Saha inside the car and quickly left the area,” he said.
According to the police, the area was immediately cordoned off, and the owner of the vehicle was traced using its registration number. “The police obtained the driver’s phone number, placed it under tracking, and monitored the vehicle’s mobile tower location. They found that the car was moving at high speed towards Haringhata in Nadia district along the national highway,” said the officer.
The Bidhannagar police immediately alerted the police of Haringhata police station in Nadia. The Haringhata police quickly set up a checkpoint on the national highway, and soon the car was intercepted.
On interrogation, the accused told the police that they were exhausted after Saha failed to pay heed to their repeated requests to repay the debts, and hence the six people hatched a plan to kidnap Saha to get back the money. They claimed that they were the victims of Saha’s cheating and just wanted to retrieve the money.
The police said they are also investigating the circumstances behind Saha’s debt and trying to determine from how many people he had borrowed money.