Man fakes own kidnapping to repay gambling debts

Jhansi: A man was arrested in Lalitpur on Sunday for faking his own kidnapping and demanding ₹5 lakh as ransom to repay the huge debts that he owed due to online gambling.

The accused Pushpendra Patel, 32, of Bargana village under Narhat police station of the district was addicted to online gambling. He had lost a huge sum of money that he had borrowed from various sources and was not able to return it.

When the debtees started pressing him to return the money, he ran away to Bhusawal on Tuesday. Finding him missing, his family members lodged a police complaint.

Patel got to know about the complaint through social media. He planned his own kidnapping and shot a video in which he was seen in a distorted condition, asking for ₹5 lakh ransom for his kidnappers who would kill him if the amount was not paid. He sent the video to his nephew.

A police complaint was lodged under section 364A, 116 IPC after the family members intimated the cops .

Additional SP Anil Kumar said that four teams were constituted to crack the case. During investigation police were surprised to learn the involvement of Patel himself. In between, Patel reached Lalitpur to collect the booty and was arrested near Virdha bus stand after a detailed surveillance .

In a similar case, another man was arrested a day ago in Lalitpur. Here too, the accused faked his own kidnapping and demanded ₹30 lakh from his wife.

Accused Manoj Kushwaha had opened a chit fund company and used to dupe people. He had bought land in the name of his wife Kamlesh with this money. To get the money back, he along with his four friends had hatched the plan.

He too was arrested on Saturday . Dev Ghosh