Student enacts kidnapping drama, arrested

PATNA: The Government Rail Police (GRP), Patna, on Monday arrested a student from a hotel in Buxar and foiled his attempt to extort Rs 5 lakh from his parents by enacting a drama of his own kidnapping.
GRP, Patna SHO Ramkant said the student, Raj Kamal a resident of Raniganj in Araria district was preparing for various engineering entrance examinations at Kota.His father, Suresh Mandal, is a cement dealer at Araria.
Ramakant said Raj and his friends were travelling by the Okha-Guwahati Express. As the train reached Patna Junction, Raj came out of the train to ease himself and disappeared. As the train left Patna Junction, his friends searched for him till Barauni and then informed his family members about Raj's disappearance, the SHO said.
Ramakant said although Raj's cellphone was switched off, it started working from Sunday evening. The youth told his family members that he had been kidnapped and kept in a room with an unidentified person keeping a watch on him, the SHO said. Later a relative of Raj lodged a case of kidnapping with the Patna GRP.
Ramakant said though Raj's cellphone was engaged when the GRP men tried to contact him, the cops traced his location at Gajadharganj in Buxar. He said on Monday morning, Raj contacted his father and told him that the kidnappers were demanding Rs 5 lakh for his safe release.
Ramakant said he became suspicious when Raj claimed that the kidnappers were unwilling to talk to his family members and wanted Rs 5 lakh to be deposited in his bank account so they could draw the cash through ATM.
“So I sent a police team to Buxar to trace the boy's whereabouts,” Ramakant said.
The SHO said during his talks with Raj, he heard the sounds of train movement. “I sought help from Buxar GRP and Buxar Town police statione and the joint police team conducted raids at all hotels located near Buxar station. Raj was found sleeping in one of the hotels,” Ramakant said.
Raj was brought to Patna GRP where he said he did not want to become an engineer. He was rather interested in becoming a businessman so he planned to extort money from his father and enacted the kidnapping drama inspired by Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots', the SHO said.
A case had been lodged against Raj, Ramakant added.