SP MLC’s son held for abducting doctor

Sources said the kidnappers first demanded nearly Rs 1 crore as ransom but later, fearing a raid, released Sharma, IG (Allahabad Zone) A.C. Sharma told The Indian Express.

Main accused in the abduction Pramod Kumar Dwivedi alias Rajju was arrested last night by a joint team of the Special Task Force (STF) and local police from his house in Fatehpur’s Kishanpur village near Allahabad. This was the same house where Sharma was kept hostage for eight days.

Sources said police knew of Rajju’s involvement in the crime and had even identified the house two days before Sharma’s release, but refrained from taking action against him because of the clout he and his father, Radhakrishan Dwivedi, a Member of the Legislative Council, enjoy in the area.

Sharma’s release came about only after the IG’s intervention, sources added. Both Rajju and his father have numerous murder cases registered against them.

Police said Rajju took the help of the Shalok Pandit gang of Allahabad to abduct Sharma. Four armed men of the gang waylaid Sharma in the wee hours of October 24, saying they were STF personnel. The doctor, who was on his way home from hospital, was bundled into a car and taken to the legislator’s house in Kishanpur, police said.

The kidnappers then demanded Rs 2 crore as ransom for releasing Dr Sharma. The figure later came down to Rs 1 crore.

Senior police officials say that as talk of the kidnapping spread in the village, Rajju asked his men to release Sharma on October 1 fearing a police raid. Rajju was arrested yesterday after Sharma identified the house where he was kept hostage. Police are now interrogating Rajju’s father in the matter.