Kidnapped woman official rescued in Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW - Rakesh Jain, a 53-year-old Uttar Pradesh bureaucrat who was missing since last Friday, was rescued by the Special Task Force (STF), police said Tuesday. Five of her abductors have been arrested.

The arrests were made Monday night. The victim is a district manager of the state Food and Essential Commodities Corporation and is posted in Sitapur.

Jain’s kidnapping was masterminded by her driver Abhay Soni and his wife Sandhya and friend Irfan, police alleged.

“Those arrested include Abhay Soni, his wife, brother, nephew and a close friend,” Additional Director General of Police Brij Lal told reporters here.

While Soni, Sandhya and Irfan were nabbed in Varanasi, about 250 km from Lucknow, the other two abductors were arrested in Unnao, about 60 km from here, where Jain was held captive in a house.

“The kidnappers had demanded Rs.50 lakh from the woman’s daughter in Agra. To make the ransom call, the kidnappers used Jain’s mobile phone,” an STF official said.

“The kidnappers told the daughter to deposit the ransom money in a particular account. Later, nearly Rs.2 lakh was deposited in the account,” he said.

After receiving the ransom call, Jain’s daughter and other relatives approached police, who then informed the bank and sought assistance to nab the kidnappers.

“On Monday, Irfan went to a bank in Varanasi district to withdraw the money. Bank officials alerted us and we managed to nab him,” the official said.

“On the information given by Irfan, the driver and his wife were also nabbed from Varanasi, while two other kidnappers were arrested from Unnao from a hideout, where they had kept the government official captive,” he added.