BAMS medico kidnapping case: Lady doctor, victim exchanged 40 calls in 9 days

Police have further informed that the BAMS doctor was approached by the lady doctor on January 9. Since then they used to talk for 10 to 40 minutes on average. As per Police information, the lady doctor is another mastermind of the case.

The Times of India recently reported that the lady doctor stayed in touch with the BAMS student since January 9 and they didn't have any fixed time to talk.

Gonda SP Shailesh Pandey has informed, "Haldar told us that the lady doctor seemed to know everything about him, but did not disclose how she got her number. For the purpose of striking the conversation, she said that her relatives also stay in Bahraich and she was keen to visit the area soon."

Special Task Force sources added that on January 15 the lady doctor informed Gaurav that she would soon meet him as her ill mother had been admitted to Gonda. Finally, on reaching Gonda on January 18, she called Gaurav from outside his hostel and kidnapped him.

The lady doctor and the masterminds of the kidnapping had reportedly worked together at Delhi's Rathi Hospital. Gonda police Chief Shailesh Pandey informed the daily that a team along with the Noida unit of Special Task Force (STF) have been camping in the NCR area to trace the lady doctor, another mastermind in the case.

Pandey told the daily, "Surveillance cells and members from the special operation group of Gonda police are tracking her."

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that 21-year-old Gaurav Haldar had been kidnapped from Gonda on January 19. Gaurav had been pursuing a Bachelor of Ayurveda Medical & Surgery (BAMS) and had been honey-trapped by a lady doctor.

On January 18, the lady doctor had called the victim from a phone belonging to passersby outside his hostel in Gonda, and then the doctor, the mastermind along with his aides abducted Haldar.

Thereafter, the first ransom call of Rs 70 lakh was made on January 19, on the phone of Haldar's father Nikhil who works at a clinic in Bahraich. Later, on the basis of surveillance, their location was traced in Gautam Buddha Nagar following which the Noida unit of STF was alerted.

The abductors called the victim's father again and demanded Rs 70 lakh on Thursday and asked the money to be delivered to Lucknow.

Based on the information, a trap was laid near the Expressway police station and a sedan was intercepted which suddenly opened fire on the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UPSTF) team. However, another team overpowered the passengers of the car from which Haldar had been recovered along with the captors.

The arrested people were identified as a doctor, Nitesh, and Mohit.

Their two other associates Rohit and Satish, who had made the ransom call to the student's father were arrested from Sant Kabir Nagar later on Friday.

Gonda police chief Shailesh Pandey further informed TOI, Nitesh, who used to run a fake call center supplied the doctor with SIM cards on fake Ids. Another accused Rohit bought mobile phones worth Rs 660 for making the ransom call. They destroyed the phones after making the calls. Police further added that this had been a planned move to confuse the police regarding their location and conceal their original identities.

The investigation has brought light into the details of the day of the crime. As per police information, Rohit had got down in Lucknow while the four others took Gaurav to Delhi.

Taking Rs 4000 from the doctor, Rohit boarded a bus to Sant Kabir Nagar. There, he and his friend Satish bought the mobile phones and made the ransom calls.

STF informed that the original plan of the kidnapping was around Diwali, November 2020, when the doctor went to his native place Bahraich, to pay a Diwali visit.

During the visit, he met his cousin Rohit (son of his father's sister), who had a close association with the victim's father Nikhil.

The doctor and Rohit together reportedly hatched the plan of abducting Gaurav, the only son to his father, around that time.

ASP, STF, Raj Kumar Mishra told TOI, "The doctor bounced the idea off his Delhi-based friend Mohit Singh, who works at a cloth store in Karolbagh. Before finalizing the plan, they also roped in Mohit's gym friend Nitesh, who is facing a fraud case in Gujarat."