3 men arrested for abduction, 2 for duping the abductors

New Delhi: Three persons have been arrested for allegedly abducting a man who duped them by making them invest in a foreign firm on pretext of doubling their money in three months, police said today.

Later, police also arrested the man who was abducted and his accomplice for allegedly cheating the trio.

A woman had complained to police that her brother Kushal Chopra left their house on January 11 and did not return, DCP (East) Omvir Singh said.

Next day, she got ransom calls and messages demanding Rs 36 lakh for freeing her brother, he said, adding investigation was initiated in the matter by Shakurpur police station.

“Based on cellphone locations, a police party searched for the accused at various places like AIIMS, Safdarjung, Chanakyapuri, Dwarka and Najafgarh.

“But they kept changing their locations and later switched off their phones once they reached Najafgarh,” he said.

On January 13, the culprits switched on their mobile phones and their location was traced to Laxmi Nagar, Singh said.

The team laid a trap and apprehended one accused, Aman, and Kushal was rescued, the officer said.

The other two accused Pankaj, the owner of a club in Gurgaon, and his business partner Akash were also nabbed later.

During interrogation, Kushal told police that Pankaj and Akash called him to meet at Connaught Place but took him to a hotel in Gurgaon where he was held.

The accused told the police that last year, Kushal had asked them to invest in the foreign firm which he claimed was registered under RBI.

Kushal had introduced them to Manoj as the director of the company.

“Manoj had urged them to invest money in the company to get it doubled in three months. The trio invested Rs 36 lakh in the firm. However, they didn’t get any profit or their principal amount,” the officer said.

Following this, a case of cheating was registered against Manoj and Kushal.

On the basis of the trio’s statements, Manoj was called for questioning.

During interrogation, Manoj told the police that in August 2016, he went to Hong Kong where he met the director of the company who then made Manoj the director and asked him to look after their business in India, the officer said.

“During investigation, when searches were made on internet, it was revealed that the company is Bulgaria-based and they are running a parallel economy in Bulgaria and are causing huge financial loss to Bulgarian government by using cryptocurrency,” the DCP said.

Following this Kushal and Manoj were also arrested in the cheating case.