BJP leader kidnapped in Ghaziabad

LUCKNOW: A senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader of Ghaziabad Sudhir Kumar Garg was kidnapped when he went for a morning walk on Monday. Only on Sunday, miscreants had shot dead former SP MLA Kapil Deo Yadav and his driver in a crowded market in Mau district.
Though the police failed to find any clue behind the murder of Yadav or the identity of his assailants, the men in khaki were quick to announce that Kapil Deo had a dozen criminal cases pending against him.
In Garg's case though the police are in a fix. The 50-year-old BJP leader, also a fruit and vegetable wholesaler, is a respected figure among the locals. That leaves no scope for the police to dismiss the incident as a probable outcome of the victim's dubious past.
Reports said that when Garg, a resident of Bhramhanand Puri locality under Kotwali police station of Ghaziabad, failed to return home at his usual time, the family got worried and launched a manhunt.
"It was around 8:30am when we received a phone call from my father stating that he has been kidnapped," said Garg's son Atul Kumar Garg. He has lodged an FIR with the police in connection with the incident.
Later, police sources quoting some eyewitnesses said Garg was intercepted by some car-borne miscreants who dragged him into the vehicle and sped away.
The family has ruled out possibilities of any business or family rivalry behind the kidnapping. The family also denied having received any ransom call in connection with Garg's kidnapping.