Ophthalmologist fakes his own kidnapping to extort Rs 15 lakh from father, arrested

Ahmedabad: In a shocking incident, an Ahmedabad-based ophthalmologist who allegedly faked his own kidnapping in order to extort Rs 15 lakh from his father, has been arrested by the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB).

The doctor has been identified as 33-year-old Dr Sanket Shah who is an eye specialist doctor from Khokhra in Ahmedabad. He runs an eye hospital near the Ghodasar BRTS bus stand. According to the police, the doctor allegedly planned his own kidnapping to pay off online gambling debts worth several lakhs he incurred.

He took the extreme step after losing money in an online gambling game. After spending an enormous amount on the game, the doctor needed more to which he borrowed Rs 26.5 lakh from his friends but lost the money in gambling. He had also put his Nexon car as a deposit for his gambling session. 

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It was reported that the doctor developed an addiction to online gambling when he was a medical student back in 2017. His addiction grew worse as he was unable to stop it. After realizing the mounting debt he had to pay, Sanket thought of the kidnapping plan that resulted in his arrest.

The doctor executed his plan on August 3 after leaving his house for work and then travelled all over Ahmedabad in his car and kept making calls to his father demanding ransom for his son, by posing as an anonymous person. Soon his plan failed as his father identified as Kirit Shah, approached the Khokhra Police Station on Wednesday afternoon after getting the calls.

Elaborating the incident, a senior police official of Ahmedabad DCB told The Indian Express, "As per the complainant, his son Dr Sanket had left for office around 9:45 am on Wednesday and around 11:15 am, he received a call from Sanket's phone where he heard him yelling 'Hello Hello. A few minutes later, he received another call from Sanket's phone where an unknown man in Hindi said his son was in custody."

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"Later, a demand of Rs 15 lakh was made through a text message warning Kirit to not inform the police. Then through several calls, all made from Sanket's phone, the caller demanded Rs 15 lakh cash to be dropped at Science City gate around 4:15 pm. Meanwhile, teams of DCB were working on the case and using technical analysis, we picked up Dr Sanket from a location in South Bopal," the senior official added.

"Back in 2017, when Dr Shah was pursuing his ophthalmologist degree in Bengaluru, he got addicted to a gaming application 'pokerbaazi.com' which he used to deposit money to play rummy games online. He lost Rs 26.5 lakh in betting and owed his friends the amount. In 2021, he had intentionally struck his car in an accident in the Danilimda area and lied to his father that he had hit two men and they demanded Rs 12 lakh from him as compensation. His father had given him the money that he lost while playing another online gambling round," said the official.