Man fakes own abduction, seeks ransom from family

Jaipur: A 30-year-old man in Sawai Madhopur devised an outlandish plan to swindle money from his family by fabricating his abduction after losing a fortune in online gaming and betting. Sawai Madhopur SP Harsh Vardhan Agarwala said that the district police tracked down Ghan Shyam Mali in the Chittorgarh district after following him for over 2,500 km. "Mali's brother Rajesh filed a complaint on June 1 at the Kundera police station in the district. Rajesh reported that his brother was missing, and he was receiving ransom calls on WhatsApp and voice messages," Agarwala said. The district police lodged a case under IPC Sections 364A (kidnapping for ransom) and 365 (kidnapping). "We constituted a team that included additional SP Himanshu Sharma, DSP Rajveer Singh, and SHO Ramveer Singh," Agarwala said, adding that the team first sifted through hours of surveillance footage from major railway stations and bus depots in Sawai Madhopur. "Our teams went to Udaipur, Mandsor, Indore, Ujjain, and Jodhpur. We covered 2,500 km in his pursuit," he said.In a fleeting snippet of CCTV footage, the team discovered Mali walking inside a railway station. The team then fanned out in Chittorgarh, where they found him staying in a guest house."He had left his house on May 30 and went straight to Kota from a railway station after parking his bike. He travelled to different religious places including Ujjain. He had switched off his mobile phone to evade surveillance," Agarwala said. When confronted by the police, Mali admitted he had spun a false story about his abduction. "He used to play online games, including some sports betting. He lost nearly Rs 7 lakh and suffered a huge financial setback. He said he was mentally exhausted and decided to plot a story to get money," said Agarwala, adding that a probe was underway into the case.