Gandhinagar police freed 15 people who were tortured and extorted in the captivity of travel agent
Ahmedabad: Gandhinagar police had freed 15 people through an operation against the travel agents who had kidnapped the targets and tortured them to extort money.
It was high time for the police to hold the operation since some people had been captured in Delhi and Kolkata for the past three months. The rescued people included a two-year-old girl from Ahmedabad and others from Gandhinagar and Mehsana.
The Gandhinagar Police officers said that the family members of one of the victims had approached Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel for redress last week. The CM instructed the Home Minister of the state, Harsh Sanghavi, to launch a rescue mission. Directed by Sanghavi, several teams were formed by Gandhinagar range IGP Abhay Chudasama and Gandhinagar SP Mayur Chavda.
A team of Gandhinagar’s local crime branch detected that two couples had been restricted to a hotel near the Delhi airport, and 11 people were sealed in the houses and hotels in Kolkata.
A team of Gandhinagar police and the particular cell of Delhi police raided the hotel in Delhi and rescued the two couples on Friday. The kidnappers released the 11 people in Kolkata immediately. The police informed that four of them were sent to Ahmedabad through the airplane, and the 11 people were brought back through the train.
Sources from the police said that an agent named Rajesh Patel from Ahmedabad, along with Sushil Roy and his brother Santosh was involved in the kidnapping. Another person from Kolkata named Kamal Singhaniya was involved in the racket.
The police officer said that the relative of one of the victims was sent to Russia by Patel earlier, so the family used to trust him. The victims had paid up to 30 lakhs to the agent to go to Canada. Some of them had paid even more. First, the agents had sent these people to Delhi, and from there, they were taken to various places in Delhi and Kolkata.
They were all captured and tortured cruelly. The victims were forced to inform their families that they had been held up in Canada and needed money to pay the authorities. With this, the kidnappers extorted at least 3.74 crores from the victims’ families.
The kidnappers beat the victims and even separated two children from their parents, which included a two-year-old girl. They threatened to sell the children if they didn’t receive the money.
Another agent from Nava Naroda, named Ramesh Patel, has also been detained in this case. At the same time, Sushil and Santosh Roy, and Singhaniya are on the run.
Published By – Pawan Rajput
Edited By – Mahi Gupta
