3 abducted from South city-I over business rivalry, six arrested

Six accused were arrested for kidnapping three florists in Gurugram over business rivalry, holding them hostage in a van before their rescue.

Gurugram: Six accused were arrested from Delhi for allegedly kidnapping three siblings from Q-Block of South City-I in Sector-40 over a business rivalry, police said on Thursday.

3 abducted from South city-I over business rivalry, six arrested

They assaulted the florists and held them hostage inside a van for hours, while driving across Gurugram and Delhi on Tuesday night, the police added.

The victims were rescued from Maidan Garhi area in Delhi by midnight after the accused released them upon learning that police were chasing them.

Police said that the accused kept moving across Gurugram in the van for several hours before fleeing towards Delhi to escape. The accused were arrested after raids at various locations in Delhi by Wednesday morning, and the van was also recovered, police said.

The victims identified as Pramod Choubey, Mukesh Kumar were florists and Jairam Kumar worked at a tea stall. All aged between 21 years and 25 years, lived in Q-block and owned flower shops for the last six months. They hailed from Gonda, Uttar Pradesh.

The accused identified as Vinit Kumar, Rahul, Bhawey alias Sonu, Sumit Kumar, Kuldeep, all from Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh and Golu alias Yogesh, of Ambedkar Colony in Delhi, also owned flower shops in the area. They were all in their early-20s. They were unhappy as the victims presence in the market led to a dip in their sales, the police added.

Inspector Lalit Groha, Sector-40 police station SHO said that the accused had assaulted the florists 10 days ago. “When the victims did not shut their shops, the accused decided to kidnap them in a Maruti Eeco van,” he said.

Groha said that the accused also intended to kidnap a fourth florist from the area. “However, they didn’t know his address and assaulted the victims to reveal his location. When the trio failed to provide any information, the accused assaulted them and kept driving around the city,” he said.

The SHO said that someone had alerted the police control room about the incident. “We got a phone number of one of the accused, based on which chase started and they fled towards Delhi to escape from where the victims were later rescued,” he added.

An FIR was registered against the accused under sections 115 (voluntarily causing hurt), 126 (wrongful restraint), 140 (3) (kidnapping or abduction with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Sector-40 police station on Thursday.