Police rescue kidnapped NRI, one held

HOSHIARPUR - The Punjab Police Saturday claimed to have rescued a 17-year-old Non Resident Indian, who holds US citizenship, from kidnappers in a village in Hoshiarpur district and arrested one of the kidnappers.

Gagandeep Singh was abducted from Adampur town in Jalandhar district Tuesday. His family received a ransom demand of Rs.55 lakh for his release.

The teenager, who was rescued late Friday, was studying in Class 10 in a private school in Adampur town.

“We were trying to ascertain the location of the kidnappers through the surveillance of mobile towers. Based on the inputs, we laid a trap near Doaba-Bist canal in Khanora village here at around 11.50 p.m. yesterday (Friday),” said a police official.

“We saw three motorcycle borne youths crossing that area. We intercepted them and found that two kidnappers were taking Gagandeep to some other place on their motorcycle. We managed to arrest one of them while the other escaped, taking advantage of darkness. The boy has been handed over to his family members,” the official said.

Gagandeep was staying in Adampur with his mother Santosh Kaur. Earlier, they were based in the US but after his father’s death a couple of years ago, the family came to Punjab.

“After coming back from school Tuesday, Gagandeep took Rs.500 and went to a grocery shop. But he did not return,” said Onkar Singh, the victim’s relative.

“We got many calls from the kidnappers about the delivery of money. Yesterday, we kept traveling from one place to another as they were frequently changing the locations for the delivery of money,” stated Singh.

Hoshiarpur town is around 130 km from Chandigarh.