Abducted Mumbai teenager rescued from Rajasthan, five held

A Mumbai teenager, who was abducted from Haryana, was rescued unharmed in Rajasthan within four days, without the ransom of Rs 5 lakh being paid, along with the arrest of five persons, police said today.
The abductors Irfan Khan (42), Iliyas Khan (40), Vaahid Jogi (26), Azad Mevu (25) and Kaasim Mevu (25) -- all hailing from Haryana -- were arrested from Rajasthan on August 10, Deputy Police Commissioner (Crime) Dhananjay Kulkarni said today.
All the five men were produced before the Bharatpur court in Rajasthan which allowed a transit remand to the Mumbai police crime branch that brought them here and produced before a local court.

All the accused were remanded in police custody till August 15, police said.
According to police, kidnappers had lured Pankaj Gupta (21) by telling him that gold bricks were discovered while digging accused's ancestor's fields and asked him to meet them in Haryana's Faridabad city to buy gold bricks, but Pankaj, instead sent his brother Praveen (18), who was then abducted by the accused on August 6.
The kidnappers then demanded Rs 8 lakh from Pankaj to release Praveen. Later they settled at Rs five lakh ransom.
Explaining the modus operandi, Kulkarni said, "The gang used to get businessmen, traders, shop owners' numbers through Just Dial, a local search engine, and then dial the victims."

In this case, the abductors dialed Pankaj's number in July informing him that gold bricks had been discovered in their ancestors' field but the Haryana government was not permitting them to sell it off.