5 arrested for cooking up kidnapping story

Times News Network

Ludhiana: In a twist to the case of “kidnapping” of a 25-year-old woman, the police on Sunday arrested the complainant and four others for fabricating the abduction story to implicate their relatives. The police have also traced the “kidnapped” woman, Kia, who was hiding in Bajra village.

Those arrested include Mohammad Sipahia, his brother Mohammad Mashoor, both residents of Kutbewal village, sister Kia of Jalandhar and relatives Jabbu and Fakardeen of Phillaur.

On July 16, Sipahia had lodged a complaint against Makhan, his son Shareef and brother Dulla, all residents of Bilaspur village in Jagraon, for thrashing him and kidnapping Kia near Quadia crossing on GT Road.

In his complaint to the police, Sipahia had said that Makhan’s daughter Sakoora had married his brother Mashoor 10 years ago. The couple had three children. Due to their strained relations, Sakoora had been living with her parents for the past three years. When Sakoora left the house, she took one of their children along, while the other two lived with Mashoor. In these three years, Sakoora and her family tried to get custody of the other two children also, but Mashoor did not agree to it. About a week ago, Makhan came to his village and approached the panchayat to take custody of the children, but to no avail.

His sister Kia, who is married in Jalandhar, had come to their house early in July. As Kia was unwell on the night of July 13, he took her along to get medicines. As no clinic was open around 10.30pm, they decided to head back home. When they reached near Quadia crossing on GT Road, an SUV intercepted their bike. Makhan, Shareef and Dulla came out of the SUV, thrashed him and kidnapped Kia, he had said in his complaint.

Salem Tabri police station SHO inspector Gopal Krishan said, “During investigation, Makhan and his family were questioned. But we found no clue. Thereafter, we approached all the doctors near the locality and found that Sipahia and Kia had gone to get medicines in the afternoon not at night. Even the CCTVs installed near the Quadia crossing had not captured anything of the sort. All this indicated that Sipahia had lodged a false complaint.”

“We then traced Kia to Bajra village. When police reached there, Kia tried to flee. She was caught after a chase of 1.5km. Thereafter, Sipahia and Mashoor were arrested. They have confessed that they wanted to implicate Makhan and his family in the case as they were pressuring them to hand over the custody of Mashoor’s children,” the inspector added.

Jubbu and Fakardeen, relatives of Sipahia, had asked him to fabricate a kidnapping story to frame Makhan’s family, the police said.

After cracking the case, the police changed the FIR sections to 182 (false statement), 191 (giving false evidence), 192 (fabricating false evidence), 193 (punishment for false evidence) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.