Three persons, suspected to be involved in kidnapping the son of an ex-councillor from northwest Delhi in 2016, were arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell following a shootout, police said today.
The accused, carrying cash rewards on their heads, were identified as Manjeet Dabas alias Chandpuria (32), Arshu Shokeen (30) and Bhagat alias Bhanu (30), they added.
Dabas was carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh while a reward of Rs 50,000 each was announced for apprehension of Shokeen and Bhagat by the Delhi Police commissioner, police said.
On September 27, the victim, a resident of Budh Vihar, had left his home in his car. As he reached near a shop in Netaji Subhash Place, he was signalled to stop by a person wearing a traffic policeman's uniform and another person in khaki uniform.
As the victim stopped his car, a Scorpio came there and he was bundled into it. A case was registered at the Netaji Subhash Place police station and the accused had allegedly demanded Rs 50 crore from the victim's father, an ex-councillor from Buddh Vihar, police said.
The father of the victim negotiated with the accused and paid Rs 1 crore to the kidnappers with a promise to pay another instalment of Rs 1 crore after the safe release of his son, they said.
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The victim was released in Gurgaon on October 3, 2016 by the kidnappers after receiving the ransom money. Later, the case was transferred to the Crime Branch, who arrested four associates of Dabas while he remained at large.
A team of Special Cell was tasked to trace the remaining accused. Sources were eployed and technical surveillance was mounted, police said.
On May 9, the Special officers received information that Shokeen would be coming to visit his maternal uncle at Jhajjar (Haryana) in a car, they said.
A trap was laid at Gurgaon Road, Jhajjar and Shokeen was nabbed. During interrogation, Shokeen revealed that he used to visit his family members at his hideout at Chhawala occasionally, police said.
A trap was laid at the service road and Dabas and Bhagat were seen coming on a motorcycle. When they were asked to stop, they sped away, they said.
The police personnel tried to stop the bike but the duo lost balance and fell down and started running, said Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (Special Cell).
They fired at the police when they were asked to stop and the policemen also fired in retaliation. Subsequently, the duo was nabbed.
Dabas did his graduation from Delhi. Thereafter, he completed B.Ed from Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh). He joined Civil Defence and worked as a volunteer for some time before taking to crime, he said.
Shokeen did his graduation from open university in 2012 and also worked with Reliance Life Insurance till 2014. The trio was employed by one Mahesh Thekedar in the plan to kidnap the ex-councillor's son.
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