VASCO
Goa police have nabbed a 13-member interstate gang on charges of kidnap and extortion of money from gullible travellers.
While 12 persons have been arrested in this connection, the thirteenth member of the gang is a minor was not arrested but was sent to a protective home.
Addressing a news conference in Vasco on Saturday, SP (South) Pankaj Kumar Singh said a woman had lodged a police complaint on February 11 stating that her Afghani fiancé had been kidnapped by unknown persons in Vasco.
Later, the complainant had received WhatsApp audio messages informing that he had travelled to Toronto-Canada. The complainant also shared that the victim had given them some indication through the same WhatsApp audio messages that he was held captive in Goa and had not travelled to any foreign destination, as claimed by his kidnappers.
RESCUE, ARREST
Vasco police registered a case under Section 365, r/w 34 IPC and several teams from Vasco police, ATS, Crime Branch and Pernem police under the supervision of SP Crime Shobhit Saxena and SP South Pankaj Kumar Singh were formed to locate the victim.
Investigations led police to trace the victim in a house at Porvorim, where he was held captive by the accused. Incidentally, one more person from Punjab, who was held in captivity, was also rescued during the search and rescue operations.
The 12 accused arrested in this connection are Alex D’Souza (29) and Robinson D’Souza (23), both from Pernem, Ashish Tripathi (30) of Gorakpur-UP, Rajat Kalyan (23), Saahil Kalyan (24), Pradeep Kumar (32), Sanju Singh (28), Vijay (26), Anil Kumar (36), Anurag Kumar (18), Vishal Goswami (20) and Sushil Singh @ Rishab (35), all from Haryana.
Police has seized from the accused fake boarding pass and passport, laptop and printer used for creating the fake passport and boarding passes and mobile phones. Two cars, one which was used during the kidnap and second one used by the main accused, have also been seized.
One minor member of the gang was also apprehended and lodged in protective custody.
MODUS OPERANDI
Police investigations revealed that the main accused, Sushil Singh @ Rishab, had organised his gang in Goa, who took a bungalow on rent in Porvorim.
Their agents in Delhi lured innocent people who wanted to travel to Canada for employment.
The victim, Shapoor Zarifi, was called by the main accused Sushil Singh on February 7 on the pretext that his travel documents were ready.
The accused obtained from him Rs 2 lakh as advance payment for tickets and visa.
Later, he was held captive at the bungalow in Porvorim and he was made to call his friends to make arrangements of payment of USD 20,000 as total payment for his travel to Canada.
During the call, the victim was made to communicate to his friends in Afghani language that they should make payment or otherwise, they (accused) would cause harm to his life.
At the same time, the accused sent a boarding pass of the victim of an Air India flight from Delhi to Toronto on February 10 along with a passport with the victim’s picture. During investigation, both the boarding pass and passport were found to be fake.
Investigations revealed that the gang would lure gullible travellers intending to visit Canada and call them to Goa, where advance payment would be taken from them after which they would be held captive at the rented bungalow.
A fake boarding pass and passport would be sent to the family members to make them believe that the victim had indeed travelled to Canada or to their desired destination. WhatsApp Voice messages were then sent from the victims mobile number using a VPN reflecting their IP locations in Canada. Later, the victims were made to call their family and friends asking for the final payment to be made.
