Man and son arrested in Mathura for faking kidnapping to evade loans

Agra: A 46-year-old man and his 22-year-old son were arrested for allegedly orchestrating a fake kidnapping to avoid repaying borrowed money in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura district.

Mathura SSP Shlok Kumar said that Nawab Singh, a jaggery trader from Aligarh, approached the Jamunapar police station last Friday, claiming that his son, Sonu Chaudhary, had been abducted and that the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs 15 lakh for his son's release.

"After receiving the complaint, a case was filed against the unknown kidnappers under section 140 (2) of the BNS. However, investigation revealed that Singh and his son staged the kidnapping to avoid repaying loans amounting to Rs 5 lakh," Kumar said.

The SSP added, "Police teams searched local hotels and examined CCTV footage and a suspicious youth was found to have checked into a hotel on April 18 and 19. Surveillance team traced the youth's location to Khatu Shyam Ji in Rajasthan's Sikar and later arrested him from the Jaipur railway station, while his father was arrested from Mathura on Sunday."

During interrogation, Nawab Singh confessed to having borrowed Rs 4 lakh from one Vijaypal Singh and Rs 1 lakh from another individual, Premi Singh for his children's wedding. Singh and his son admitted to staging the kidnapping to garner sympathy and avoid repaying the loan.

A case was registered under various sections of BNS including 248 (falsely charging someone with an offence with the intent to cause harm), and 229 (giving false evidence in a judicial proceeding), and both father and son have been sent to judicial custody. Further investigation is ongoing.