Medical student kidnapped from UP rescued, 3 arrested after gunfight on Noida Expressway

Noida, January 22

A medical student who was kidnapped from Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district on January 18 for ransom has been rescued and three people, including a doctor who allegedly plotted the conspiracy, arrested, police said on Friday.

The accused were held following an exchange of gunfire at the Zero Point here on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway while the trio was in a car, the police said.

“The kidnapped student, Gaurav Haldhar, was rescued safely from the car in the joint operation by the Noida unit of the Special Task Force (STF) and the Gonda police,” according to an official statement.

Haldhar, a resident of Kashipur in Payagpur area of Bahraich district, is pursuing Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine, and Surgery (BAMS) from SCPM College of Nursing and Medical Sciences, Haripur in Gonda, and resides in hostel.

The trio has been identified as mastermind Dr Abhishek Singh, who has a BAMS degree from an institute in Bengaluru, Nitesh Bihari and Mohit Singh, the STF said.

The accused had demanded a ransom of Rs 70 lakh from Haldhar’s father over phone, a day after the student’s kidnapping, prompting his family to approach the police.

Haldhar was honey-trapped by a woman known to the conspiracy’s mastermind and she had called him for a meeting in Gonda on January 18 but instead he was kidnapped and brought to Delhi by the accused, according to the STF. PTI