Gururgam Class 12 student fakes own kidnapping, demands Rs 3 crore ransom to buy car

A class 12 student in Gurugram staged his own kidnapping and allegedly paid a ragpicker rupees 500 to make a ransom call of rupees 3 crore to his mother, as he wanted to purchase a Santro car. The 18-year-old later walked into a police station, claiming to be intoxicated and tried to concoct a story, eventually failing to tie the loose ends during questioning. He was arrested two days later on charges of extortion .

Police said the man, who is pursuing class 12 through correspondence, wanted to purchase a Santro car, but his mother was refusing to buy him a car due to lack of funds. On his insistence, the mother and her son had gone to a car showroom last month but had decided against purchasing a vehicle, prompting him to plan his own kidnapping to come up with the money.

According to police, the incident took on March 29 when the man, identified by first name as Sandeep alias Sachin, told his mother at 6.30am that he was going for a cricket practice from their house in Krishna Colony to Sector 5 on his scooter, but instead went to Chintpurni temple in Sector 5.

Subash Boken, spokesperson, city police, said the student abandoned his scooter at the temple and hitched a ride in an autorickshaw to Dharuhera. “After roaming around for some time, he went to a garbage dump and paid ₹500 to a ragpicker to make a ransom call with his own phone to his mother. He told the ragpicker to demand ₹3 crore in exchange for his safe return,” Boken said.

Police said the man’s mother had received a call in the afternoon from an unknown caller and the caller had asked to speak to Naveen, her brother-in-law’s son. In her complaint registered at New Colony police station on March 29 at 5.30pm, the woman said that the unknown caller told her that he did not have any personal enmity with her and wanted to speak to Naveen once.

“Sandeep was aware that his mother did not have sufficient funds and would take the help of Naveen, who owned several disputed plots in Rajasthan. He figured if he asked for a ransom of rupees 3 crore, his mother and his relative would end up paying a fraction of the amount, with which he would purchase the car,” Boken said.

Police said it was unclear whether his mother had gone to Naveen’s house in Shivaji Nagar and informed him of the ransom call. Later in the evening, while the police teams were conducting raids, Sandeep allegedly walked into the traffic police post at Manesar and claimed to be intoxicated.

A police official privy to the investigation said, “He was taken to the alleged ‘crime scene’ and in his statement to duty magistrate, denied any memory of the alleged kidnapping, which aroused suspicion. During interrogation, he confessed to hatching a plan to kidnap himself to purchase a car.”