An eight-year-old was kidnapped in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, on Friday, adding to the recent spate of crimes in the state.
The child’s father, Ramji Gupta, who owns a bidi manufacturing unit, has received a ransom call for Rs 4 crore. The two kidnappers had come to the family’s home in Gonda’s Colonelganj area around 1.25pm and said that they were selling sanitisers and masks. The child had stepped out of home to pick up the sanitisers and masks when the kidnappers put her on their motorcycle and fled. The state’s Special Task Force has been put on the case.
Earlier today, it was revealed that a one Sanjeev Yadav, who had been kidnapped in Kanpur, and whose rescue operation failed, had been murdered before the demand for ransom was made. Yadav had been kidnapped on June 22 and his family reported the matter to the police on June 26. The family received a ransom call on June 29. When Yadav’s father went to pay the ransom money, under police cover, the criminals ran off with the money and did not release him as per the earlier deal. Though the police have contested that any money was paid, the Station House Officer was suspended for the botched operation.
Five friends of Yadav arrested in connection with the kidnapping, spilled the beans today that they had murdered him before the trade-off happened. The family had accused the police of delay in action.
This morning, the Congress state president Ajay Kumar Lallu was stopped from going to Kanpur to meet the Yadav family.
In a statement released to the media, Lallu said, “Law and order in the state is helpless in front of criminals. Yogi is unable to manage the state. He should resign at once”.
Elsewhere in the state, a 50-year-old doctor was shot dead and then his throat slit by miscreants earlier in the day.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav tweeted, “If the UP government cannot keep children safe, it has no right to govern. It seems as if criminals have encountered this government of encounters.”
