‘Namaste Uncle’, the greeting used by kidnappers while contacting victim’s family led to busting of a six-member interstate kidnapping gang. It was the Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) which joined the dots and traced the gang. The STF identified the greeting used by kidnappers and linked it with other kidnapping cases occurred in state in the past.
The kidnapping was well scripted and the gang had full-fledged plan to execute the crime but police and state STF cracked the code and nabbed them. A small clue led the police to bust the gang. A businessman Bahadur Singh was abducted from Rewa on July 24.The gang had demanded Rs 40 lakh for his safe release.
It took around one month to bust the gang responsible for the kidnapping of businessman, said an official posted in STF on condition of anonymity. The businessman was rescued safely from Bihar on September 7. All gang members, along with the kingpin were arrested. While investigating into the case, STP found out that while calling the businessman’s family, the kidnappers remained polite and never threatened them.
The cops looked into their old records and found similar modus operandi being adopted by kidnappers Balinder Singh, and his associate Narayan Lohar, who hailed from Indore. Balinder was earlier arrested in kidnapping case but had escaped. Unlike other gangsters, Balinder Singh, the kingpin of the gang, always displayed great respect while interacting with the family of the victim.
Their telephonic talk with the family would start with the greetings ‘Namaste Uncle’ or ‘Namaste Auntyji’. The member of this gang never used abusive language while taking to the aggrieved family and even never threatened them. Rewa businessman’s family gave similar inputs to STP who after going through records linked the kidnapping to Balinder and Narayan. While intercepting a phone call STF gathered that the kidnapper was none other than Narayan. He had shifted to Uttar Pradesh and had changed his name and religion to disguise police.
On September 7, while executing the rescue operation, the police posing as beggar and sadhus boarded Purshottam Express along with the victim’s family member who was to deliver the ransom to the kidnappers. As directed, the person threw the bag containing ransom from the moving train near Sasaran station. Two men riding a red motorcycle collected the bag and fled from the spot. Bihar police was alerted and during routine traffic checking both Balinder and Narayan were arrested along with the booty at 8.20 am. Four others members of the gang were later arrested from their hideout.
The gang used to travel in train and use motorcycle and SUV to reach the destination to collect the ransom. The kidnappers played safe and never used smart phones to contact the family of the victim. They used basic 2-G phones as they knew that it would be difficult for the cops to pinpoint their locations. They used 8-SIMs and new mobile phones to execute their kidnapping plan. All purchases were made from Asansol, West Bengal.
They always remained guarded while calling the family and they kept the call frequency very limited. They used to call the family in four-day gap. In Rewa kidnapping case, the first call was made by the kidnapper to the distressed on July 26, the area was Jabalpur. They made a few more calls and the entire kidnapping drama came to end on September 7 with the arrest of the gang kingpin and his aide.
