Woman fakes kidnappingto frame her rivals, held

Kanpur: A 38-year-old female contractual employee of Saifai Medical University in Etawah allegedly orchestrated her own kidnapping to frame her rivals, after police checked footage from 100 CCTV cameras and found her claims to be false.

The police said the woman planned the abduction due to a monetary dispute and an old conflict and acted in collusion with an associate to implicate rivals in a false case. The police arrested the woman and her associate and said no evidence was found against those accused of kidnapping.

Sarita, wife of Rajesh Kumar and a resident of Nagla Sev, filed a case at Lavedi police station on May 27. She alleged that on the evening of May 26 she was returning home after duty at Saifai Medical University when some people abducted her. She alleged she was made to drink a cold drink laced with a narcotic substance and, after losing consciousness, was left at a deserted location in the Lavedi area. Police admitted her to a hospital and began investigating.

A joint team of SOG, Surveillance and Lavedi police station was formed under the leadership of SP crime Santosh Kumar Singh on the directions of senior superintendent of police, Etawah, Brijesh Kumar Shrivastava. The team examined CCTV footage installed across the district under Operation Trinetra and checked mobile location, call detail records, electronic evidence and other technical data.

The investigation found that the individuals named by the woman as kidnappers were not present at the alleged crime scene at the time of the incident. The police said they could not corroborate the sequence of events described by the woman, and technical and physical evidence disproved the kidnapping story. The police said that when the matter was probed further, the sequence of events appeared suspicious.

The police said there was a pre-existing dispute between the woman and those she named, involving monetary transactions and litigation and that a false story was fabricated to implicate rivals in legal proceedings. The police also found the role of Amarpal Yadav (45), a resident of Gaura Dayalpur in the Chaubiya police station area, who allegedly assisted the woman in the conspiracy.

On May 31, the joint team arrested Amarpal Yadav from near Dadaura Shamla Mandir based on a tip-off from an informer. Based on interrogation and available evidence, Sarita was arrested later. The police said both fabricated false evidence and attempted to frame innocent people by providing misleading information to the police.

The police said that after the kidnapping claim was found to be false, the kidnapping-related sections were removed from the original case and Sections 231, 61(2), and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita were added. Further legal action against both the accused was underway.