BCS students’ kidnapper sent to judicial custody, ready to provide his voice samples for verification

Police had moved an application, seeking the court’s permission to obtain the voice samples of the suspect.

Sources said Sood would be taken to the State Forensic Science Laboratory to obtain his voice samples.

The public prosecutor argued in court that Sood’s voice samples were required to match the recorded ransom calls to the parents of two of the kidnapped students.

The three students were given ‘Outing Passes’ by the school on Raksha Bhandan on August 9, when Sood, a BCS alumnus, kidnapped them.

The same day, Sood allegedly demanded ransom in Bitcoins and threatened the parents that if they informed the school management or the media, their children would be harmed.

Sood was arrested at his house at Kokunala village near Kotkhai in Shimla district, and three kidnapped children were recovered from his possession, police said, adding that a car with a fake registration number was impounded from Sood’s possession.

Police said they seized a licensed firearm, sharp-edged weapons, including a machete, from his house.

A case was registered at the New Shimla police station.

Three kidnapped students, who stay in a BCS hostel, are from Kullu, Karnal in Haryana and Mohali in Punjab. One of the students is a relative of Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains, who had visited Shimla, along with the family members of the student.

Later, the BCS management decided that the students would now go off campus under the supervision of adults or school staff.

Reacting to the comment of relatives of one of the rescued students that two Nigerians and Sood had threatened the students, a senior police officer said, “The students are still in shock. Sood told the parents over calls that a Nigerian gang was behind the kidnapping, and if they informed someone, the Nigerian citizens would kill their wards. Sood had pretended that he was threatened by the gang to make calls to the parents.”