Abductors arrested, police rescue Das

SHILLONG, MAR 19: In a major breakthrough, the East Khasi hills district police on Wednesday rescued one Digbijoy Das, a resident of Shillong, who was kidnapped last month by five kidnappers and demanded Rs 2 crores for his release from his relatives. The five abductors were also arrested.

The East Khasi hills police managed to rescue the kidnapped boy just on the nick of time as the abductors were planning to kill Das on Wednesday itself after keeping in in captivity for forty-one days.

Das rescued by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Superintendent of Police (City) Vivek Syiem at around 3 am on Wednesday from a secluded hut in Gaspara Simola, Amsui under Nagaon district in Assam, East Khasi hills SP M Kharkhrang told  reporters at a news conference held late Wednesday night.

Earlier, the brother of Das, Ramanuj Das of Bishop Cotton Road had filed a missing complaint on February 7 and later he received a call from an unknown caller that his brother was abducted and is in the custody of the callers.

The caller demanded a ransom of Rs crores for his release.

Kharkhrang informed five members of the gang – Rashendra Paul (39) of Jail Road, Tapas Paul (21) of  Jamunamukh, Nagaon, Pradeep Das (29) of Senshua, Nagaon, Tarender Das (38) of Amsui, Nagaon and Bhutka Das (30) of Amsui, Nagaon were arrested.

One .32pistol with two rounds of ammunition, three mobile phones, eight SIM cards, chain used to cuff the victim and four daos were recovered and seized from their possession.

“It was a well-planned operation by the gang and the master-mind was Rashendra Paul,” Kharkhrang said. He informed that Paul had befriended with Digbijoy after learning that he (Digbijoy) was an employee in an insurance company.

Paul had been arrested in 2007 for his involvement in several burglary cases in the city.

Informing that the gang had fixed last week as the deadline, Kharkrang said, “They had asked the family members to pay the ransom at Jorabat, threatening that they would eliminate Das of they fail to get the money within four days.”

Kharkhrang also said that the gang had physically tortured the victim during the 41 days in their captivity.

Commenting on the success of the operation, Kharkhrang said, “It is due to the sincerity, dedication, hard work and patience of the SIT as they had to painstakingly and cautiously traced the kidnappers while at the same time ensure that the kidnappers do not suspect that the relatives had approached the police.

Stating that it was also due to the total faith of the family members on the district police for which they shared every bit of information which  helped the police during the investigation.

Kharkhrang also attributed the success to the use of technology and human intelligence collection.  He said, “We would ensure that the case is charge-sheeted immediately.” – By Our Reporter