Four Gandhinagar residents ‘held captive in Iran on way to Australia’ return

While the purpose of their Australia trip is not clear, their reported capture came to light through the videos sent to their relatives by the “captors”.

The four persons identified as Ajaykumar Kanti Chaudhary (31), his wife Priya (25), Anilkumar Raghaji Chaudhari (35) and Nikhilkumar Raman Chaudhari (28) belong to Bapupura and Badpura villages of Mansa taluka of Gandhinagar.

Sarpanch of Bapupura village Prakash Chaudhari, who was with the four rescued persons at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (SVPIA), Ahmedabad, told The Indian Express, “All four persons have landed in Ahmedabad and police are here to help them. They are safe now. Three of them are from our Bapupura village and one from the neighbouring Badpura village.”

Mansa MLA Jayanti Soma Patel, who accompanied the four persons to Gandhinagar from the airport, told The Indian Express, “All four persons have landed and we are on the way back home. The couple are safe and sound but the two youths have suffered a lot of thrashing, but are alright at the moment.”

The abduction came to light on October 26 after the relatives of the abducted persons showed the videos of torture sent to them by the captors, one of them named “Baba”, to the local Sarpanch of Bapupura village. The sarpanch then wrote to MLA Patel and former MLA Amit Chaudhary. On the same day, Patel wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is the MP from Gandhinagar, saying that the four persons had gone from Gandhinagar to Delhi and then, instead of flying to Australia on October 10, had flown on an Emirates Airlines flight to Bangkok, Thailand, from there to Dubai, UAE, and then on to Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, Iran.

Speaking about the sequence of events, Sarpanch Chaudhari said, “These people had left India on October 19 to go to Australia but we don’t know the purpose of their visit. We learnt that they had been abducted after their relatives in the village received videos of them being stripped and tortured on Sunday (October 26). The captors had sought about Rs 2 crore for their release. They were released thanks to the intervention of the government.”

The four persons are likely to be questioned by Gandhinagar police in the coming days and an FIR could be filed against the travel agents who allegedly diverted them to Iran instead of taking them to Australia.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Gandhinagar S P Ravi Teja Vasamsetty said a couple of them are not in a good condition to speak and the police will give them a couple of days to recover before taking their statements.Asked if the four had tried to illegally immigrate to another country, Vasamsetty said that aspect would be covered in the probe.