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Journalism of Courage
Three-year-old son Anant Gupta returned home to Noida on Friday morning as suddenly as he had disappeared four days ago. Anant8217;s father and CEO of Adobe India Rakesh Gupta admitted paying a ransom of Rs 50 lakh, money that was recovered in a village in Bulandshahr8212;proving once again that western Uttar Pradesh8217;s sugarcane belt remains the hotbed of kidnappings.
For the Uttar Pradesh police predictably, this is nothing new. With at least eight kidnappings reported in the state each day, it can8217;t be new. It8217;s just that in the past one year, it was only the abduction of Anant that garnered so much attention.
Unholy trio: UP, Bihar, Delhi
The risk of being kidnapped is higher if you live in UP, Bihar or Delhi. Figures of the National Crime Records Bureau for the year 2005 show that 23,133 kidnapping cases were reported from the country. Of these, nearly 31 per cent were reported from three states now notorious for abductions. UP was on top of the chart with 2,955 cases last year. Bihar came second with 2,693 cases followed by Delhi at a tally of 1,590.
UP is also the least childfriendly. Of the 3,518 children kidnapped in the country an increase of 10 per cent from 2004, UP accounted for 749 such cases8212;nearly 21 per cent of the national figure. That means two children are kidnapped in UP each day. Kidnappings of children have in fact been increasing over the years8212;the total country figure was just 2,571 in 2004.
As for women, they are more vulnerable than men in UP as well as Delhi. In UP, 2,247 women were kidnapped last year compared with 708 men. The trend is the opposite in Bihar though8212;here 1,764 men were kidnapped as against 929 women.
Sugar belt, bitter taste
Analyse the UP kidnappings cases and a clear trend emerges. The western UP belt of six contiguous districts8212;Etah, Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar8212;is where you need to constantly look over your shoulder. The sugarcane bowl of the country accounts for nearly half of all the kidnappings in the state. 8220;We gunned down the leading dacoits of Chambal belt in the past one year and that has helped a lot in clearing the area of many organised gangs and their back has been broken 8212;but kidnappings are still being reported from Kanpur Zone,8221; says DIG Kanpur Range Daljit Singh Chaudhary, who was earlier SSP, Etawah district. Etah district with its fields of dense sugarcane has emerged as the most dangerous of them all. 8220;The area demography suits the kidnapping industry here8212;all across the six western UP districts in question, crops like sugarcane act as a natural shield8212;kidnapped victims are kept hostage in the fields, shielded from searching eyes by the 20-ft high sugarcane plants8212;a shield impossible to pierce for an operation,8221; says SSP Meerut Navniet Sekera.
There are times when the criminal8217;s strength becomes his weakness. 8220;We zeroed in on the fact that canals run through these sugarcane fields,8221; says Sekera, who was then posted at Muzaffarnagar, 8220;and gangs have to cross the canals to traverse the sugarcane fields. We used a bullet-proof tractor to go inside the sugarcane fields8212;we killed 54 gangsters in one year alone in Muzaffarnagar in 2004.8221;
Police officials concede that professional gangs, however, still thrive in this belt8212;the six vulnerable districts located along a line enable gangs to shift locations swiftly.
Beyond a boundary
Kidnapped in Rajasthan and Delhi, kept hostage in western UP. That was the pattern shown by the four most sensational kidnappings reported in the last two years.
8226; Fifteen-year-old Vaibhav Aggrawal was kidnapped last June from a DAV school in Kota. He was shifted to Greater Noida, Hardwar, Saharanpur, Sonepat, Panipat and finally to Ghaziabad from where he was rescued after three weeks.
8226; In 2006 UP gangster Guddu Rai was arrested for masterminding the much-publicised kidnapping of nine-year-old DAV School student Gaurav Kumar or Golu who disappeared from Danapur in Bihar on September 20, 2005, on his way back home. He was held hostage in western UP and was rescued after 26 days.
8226; Six-year-old Lakshit Malhotra was kidnapped outside his school in Pitampura on September 23, 2006. The police traced him three days later to a village in Etah.
8226; Four-year-old Renal Gupta, son of a leading Lucknow jeweller was kidnapped in October 2004 from the posh Mahanagar area of Lucknow outside his teacher8217;s house, Renal returned home after as many as six months later amidst reports that heavy ransom was paid to a Western UP gang.
It takes four to kidnap
That8217;s what a study carried out by UP police on kidnappings in Western UP says.
The Mastermind
This is a person with negligible criminal history and one who is either closely related to the family or has a strong motive8212;revenge, a financial falling out or simply a desire to get rich, quick. He makes the plan, gathers intelligence on the victim and makes sure all details are available to ensure the kidnapping is a 8216;smooth and safe8217; operation.
The Executor
This is generally a gang of local criminals. They usually have little stake in the conspiracy and collect some token money for kidnapping.
They don8217;t keep the victim with them for long for the fear of local police intelligence zeroing in on them and they aren8217;t the ones who make the ransom calls. They shoulder the maximum risk though8212;and are generally the ones who get arrested.
The shelter giver
This is the 8216;professional8217; gang of criminals to which the victim is handed over. Thriving in Western UP, these gangs arrange for the place to keep the victim hostage, to negotiate with the family for ransom and arrange for the victim8217;s release after the ransom is paid to them.
They generally pick up victims from local gangs and pay them according to the profile of the victim. In most cases, this gang remains out of reach of the police even if the case is cracked.
The negotiator
Often the mastermind and the negotiator are one. It could also be someone who is very close to the victim8217;s family and has no criminal record. He remains in close touch with the family when negotiations are on and tries to convince the family to pay up a 8216;reasonable8217; amount and secure the child8217;s release. This person also tries to dissuade the family from co-operating with the police and is instrumental in finalising the ransom amount to be paid. Even if the case is cracked, the family generally refuses to believe police claim regarding his involvement.
