An Ola cab driver who allegedly kidnapped a Delhi doctor and held him captive for 13 days in an attempt to extort Rs 5 crore in ransom from the cab company has been arrested. The police said the doctor, kidnapped on July 6 on his way home to south Delhi, was rescued on Wednesday after a gunfight in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.
The two-week-long drama, which involved two police encounters with the accused and 200 Delhi cops being deployed for investigations and search operations, finally ended on Wednesday with the doctor’s rescue and the arrest of four kidnappers.
One of the accused also suffered bullet injuries in the shootout, while five others, including the masterminds, are still absconding.
Dr Shrikant Gaur, a resident of Telangana, works at a private hospital in east Delhi. He had booked an Ola cab on July 6 to return to his home in south Delhi. But instead of driving him home, the driver took him to Dadri near Noida where other members of the gang joined them. They then threatened to kill the doctor if he tried to raise an alarm.
The first call was made on July 7 to the Ola call centre, in which the kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs 5 crore. Another call was made to the hospital where he works. The kidnappers spoke to a nurse and asked the hospital to build pressure on Ola, saying they just wanted to teach the company a lesson.
During the next 13 days, the police said the gang did not use their mobile phones but Dr Goud's phone to avoid identification.
The policemen then spoke to the kidnappers posing as representatives of the cab aggregator. They told the kidnappers that they would pay the ransom amount since it was their customer who had been kidnapped.
The police managed to track down the location of the accused in Daurala village in Meerut. They also requested for assistance from the Meerut police in the operation.
On July 16, they were following a vehicle being driven by the kidnappers. However, after their vehicle got punctured, the accused left their vehicle and fled through some fields there, the police said.
The police identified two of the accused as Sushil and his brother Anuj, residents of Dadri village.
It also emerged that two others -- Ombir and Gaurav Sharma -- were involved in the kidnapping. Sushil is a driver with the cab aggregator firm and he had planned the kidnapping, the police said.
After they were identified, the police started questioning their families and their teams also started scanning nearby villages.
Yesterday evening, the Delhi Police team received information that the doctor was being held captive at a house in Partapur village in Meerut.
The police team surrounded the place where the doctor was being held captive.
Following an exchange of fire between the Meerut and Delhi Police teams and the kidnappers, the doctor was rescued and four accused were nabbed, said the officer.
The doctor is being brought to Delhi by a police team.
