Fearing poor marks in Class 10, Udaipur boy stages his own kidnap

Jaipur: A teenager in Udaipur staged the drama of his kidnap and made a ransom call to his father demanding Rs 50 lakh. The boy fled to Delhi and was coming to Nasirabad near Ajmer when a team of Udaipur police intercepted him and exposed the kidnap drama. The boy, identified as Shubham Pandey, had made the ransom call after downloading an app that hid his original number and displayed an international number on his father’s cellphone.

The police officials said that Shubham staged the kidnap drama as he feared that he would not score good marks in Class X, result of which is to come out soon.

Shubham’s father Rajesh Kumar Pandey, a resident of Govardhan Vilas, registered an FIR with Govardhan Vilas Police Station on May 19. In the FIR, he stated that his teenaged son had left home around 3 pm, but didn’t return home. When Rajesh called him up, he found Shubham’s mobile phone switched off. He enquired about the boy with his friends, relatives and neighbors, but nobody had seen him. He then approached the police.

On Sunday morning, Rajesh received a call. The caller said that the boy had been kidnapped and if he wanted him back, he should pay a ransom of Rs 50 lakh. The caller made him speak to Shubham who told him that he was on his way to Doodh Talai when some men in a car kidnapped him. The boy told his father that he had been locked in a room.

Rajesh pleaded with the caller that he didn’t have that much money.

The caller then told him to arrange for at least Rs 3 lakh. He asked Rajesh to call him back when the money had been arranged.

A police team under the supervision of SP, Udaipur Rajendra Prasad Goyal studied the CCTV footages and found that the boy was wandering around alone at the railway station and then got onboard a Delhi-bound train on Saturday.

A team was rushed to Delhi, but the police came to know that the boy had left the city and was on way to Nasirabad. Another police team found him travelling in a train near Nasirabad.

When interrogated, the boy confessed that he had fled on his own.

“The results of class X exam were to come out soon. He feared that he wouldn’t be able to score good marks and his family members will scold him. So in order to divert the family’s attention, he staged the kidnap drama,” said SP Goyal.

The boy tried to change his voice using a handkerchief when making the ransom call. He himself posed as the kidnapper and then spoke to his father in his original voice.

The officer said the boy downloaded an app that enabled him to route the mobile call. An international number was displayed on his father’s call when he called his father.