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Indian couple, 3-year-old daughter kidnapped in Libya while going to Portugal
Mehsana Collector SK Prajapati said that the state government and the Ministry of External Affairs have been informed about the kidnapping.
An Indian couple and their three-year-old daughter were allegedly kidnapped in Libya while they were trying to migrate to Portugal, and have been held for a ransom of ₹2 crore, reported news agency PTI citing officials on Saturday.
The family is from Badalpura village of Gujarat’s Mehsana district; identified as Kismatsinh Chavda, his wife Heenaben, and daughter Devanshi. While the couple's age is not known, their daughter is 3 years old.
The family was kidnapped in Libya while they were going to Portugal where Kismatsinh’s brother lives, said Mehsana Superintendent of Police Himanshu Solanki.
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The family’s journey started on November 29 when they took a flight from Gujarat’s Ahmedabad to Dubai. From there, they went to Libya’s Benghazi city where they were eventually kidnapped before they could reach their next destination, Solanki said. He added that Mehsana Collector SK Prajapati has been informed about the incident.
The family wanted to settle in the European nation and was travelling with the help of a Portugal-based agent. Solanki said the agent is not Indian.
“Chavda’s brother is settled in Portugal, and he was travelling with the help of an agent based in Portugal. The family was travelling with the intention to settle there, and the agents involved in the case are not Indians,” PTI quoted Solanki as saying.
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He said that after abducting the family, the kidnappers contacted their relatives in Mehsana and demanded a ransom of ₹2 crore, following which the relatives approached Collector SK Prajapati for help on Friday.
He also said that the state government and the Ministry of External Affairs have been informed about the kidnapping.
Similar incident
Earlier this year in July, an Indian man named Ranjit Singh was kidnapped in Niger's Dosso region by unidentified gunmen while he was working at a construction site. The gunmen also allegedly killed two other Indians.
Ranjit Singh is a resident of Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban district. Niger’s local media reported that unidentified gunmen attacked an Army unit guarding a construction site in Dosso, about 130 kilometres from capital Niamey.
(With inputs from PTI)
