Bhojpuri actor rescued from UP village

A 23-year-old bridal makeup artist, who was abducted on Thursday for a ransom of Rs 2 crore by five men from Southwest Delhi’s Dwarka, was rescued by the Delhi police from Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday night.

The victim, Abhishek Kheterpal, was held hostage for over 72 hours at a remote village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi. The police has arrested five kidnappers from the house.

Mr Kheterpal, who had earlier worked in Bhojpuri movie, was tied to a cot in a house, when police raided the house. He was unconscious when the police rescued him. The kidnappers were constantly injecting some tranquilising stuff into Mr Kheterpal’s body to keep him in an unconscious state. The police said that over a dozen such injections were administered to him in 72 hours.

The police also recovered a taxi, mobile phones, and SIM cards obtained on fake documents that were used in the crime. Those arrested were identified as Wasim (32), the mastermind of the crime, Deepak (28), Neeraj Sharma (23), Vinod (31), and Nasir (21).

Dependra Pathak, joint CP (southwestern range), said that the five were in need of money. As Mr Kheterpal was doing well in his business and had the habit of boasting himself as rich, the five planned to kidnap him and extort money from his family. They hatched a plan to trap him by posing as clients.

Wasim had earlier worked as a tailor in the boutique of Kheterpal’s mother in Janakpuri. The boutique was closed in 2012 and Wasim had become unemployed. He was aware of Kheterpals’ sound financial position.

On October 20, Deepak called Kheterpal and arranged for a meeting in Dwarka regarding the bridal make-up of his handicapped sister. Deepak called him near a five-star hotel in Dwarka from where they abducted him in his car. To misguide the police, the abductors left his car in the parking lot of IGI Airport.

“The five shifted Kheterpal in their taxi and drove to the village in Hardoi. They gave him injections to keep him unconscious. The first ransom call was made on October 22. They made three more calls to his mother and demanded Rs 2 crore for his safe release,” said Mr Pathak, adding that the kidnappers were changing their locations to Kanpur and Lucknow while making ransom calls. “Before kidnapping, Mr Kheterpal had sent a message to his father, informing him about the place where he was going to meet his potential clients. The message also had the mobile number that was used to contact him,” Mr Pathak said.

A case was registered at the Janakpuri police station and teams collected details of the mobile number through which they tracked down their locations in the village.