Man kidnaps cousin to pay off debts

He drugs girl, takes her on train without buying tickets

A seven-year-old girl, who was kidnapped from Kishangarh in Ajmer, has been rescued in Agra. Police said her cousin had plotted the incident to pay off his debt.

The girl was rescued by the Railway Protection Force from a compartment of Ajmer-Sealdah Express in Agra. “Ravinder Sharma, 26, is the girl’s cousin, so she did not protest or scream when she was kidnapped,” said Ajmer SP Rajesh Meena.

Ravinder was under a debt of Rs 80,000, and the motive behind the kidnapping was to use the ransom to pay off the debt.

“The girl’s father, Gopal Sharma, runs a dhaba in Kishangarh and has a steady flow of income. The accused used to work for him at the dhaba. A few days ago, he had demanded Rs 80,000 and claimed that he needed it to pay his ailing wife’s medical expenses,” said Meena.

Then Gopal came to know that Ravinder’s wife was not suffering from any illness, and that he needed the money to pay off his debts. Knowing this, Gopal refused to give him the money, following which he plotted the kidnapping,” Meena said.

Police said the accused made the ransom call for Rs 60,000 from his cellphone, which helped trace him.

“We were tracking the cellphone location. Since the train stops for a longer duration at Agra Fort railway station, we decided to nab him there,” he said.

The girl was drugged and didn’t realise that she had been kidnapped until the train reached Agra.

“The accused boarded the train without buying tickets,” Meena added. Ravinder was sent to two-day police custody by a local court in Kishangarh.