Jaipur police bust ransom gang, mastermind among four arrested, recover Rs 44.5 lakh cash

Jaipur: The Jaipur police (west) have busted a kidnapping-for-ransom gang that allegedly abducted an elderly couple after luring them with a fake property deal and extorted nearly Rs48 lakh from them. After arresting four accused, including the alleged mastermind, the Bhankrota police on Tuesday recovered Rs 44.50 lakh cash, a pistol, the SUV used in the crime and several household items allegedly purchased from the ransom money.

The arrested accused have been identified as Nishchit Tiwari alias Mohit Tiwari alias Gurpreet Singh alias Akhil Agrawal (40), believed to be the mastermind, Usman Gani (62) of Udaipur, Wasim Akhtar alias Golu (34) of Bihar and Akhil Kumar Mahiwala (32) of Patna. The accused were brought to Jaipur on transit remand and formally arrested on May 15.

“After their arrest our focus was to get the maximum recovery out of the extortion money,” said Prashant Kiran, deputy commissioner of police(West) told TOI.

DCP (west) Prashant Kiran said the gang specifically targeted elderly property owners through online real-estate platforms. The victim, Vijay Lakshmi, had uploaded an advertisement to sell her Vaishali Nagar house on 99 Acres, a property website. Soon after, Nishchit allegedly contacted the couple posing as a wealthy Dubai-based gold trader interested in buying the property for around Rs2.8 crore.

Police said that on May 2, the accused took the couple in an SUV to a villa in Balaji Enclave, Chordia City, where other gang members were waiting. The couple was allegedly assaulted, threatened with a pistol and confined inside the villa for several days. The gang initially demanded Rs60 lakh and eventually extorted about Rs47.90 lakh through bank transfers and money arranged from relatives and acquaintances.

After receiving the ransom, the accused allegedly sent the couple to Delhi airport in a cab and warned them against approaching police. Investigators later traced the accused through CCTV footage, call detail records and technical surveillance. Police said Nishchit used multiple fake identities, forged Aadhaar cards and several mobile numbers to conceal his identity.