Ransom via SMS, Set-up whiff in abduction

 The Telegraph,December 1,2010

Behrampore, Nov. 30: The wife of a missing jeweller received a text message from his own cellphone demanding Rs 10-lakh ransom, fuelling theories that ranged from kidnapping to a “self-staged” caper.

The text message sent on Sunday, the day Murshidabad jeweller Sukdeb Dutta was reported missing, said: “10 lake taka diye chela k niea jaben… (pay Rs 10 lakh and take him back).” However, police said they are also investigating suspicions raised by local businessmen if the abduction had been stagemanaged to “extract money from his in-laws”.

Dutta, 37, had told his wife Arpita over the phone early on Monday that he had been kept confined “in a dark room in Lalgola”. Although Lalgola, in Murshidabad, is 45km from Behrampore, the police traced Dutta’s phone to Orissa.

Arpita said Dutta had left home for his shop at 10am on Sunday. She said that at 2.42pm, she received the text message. The SMS carrying her husband’s cellphone number said he would be “released unharmed” if the ransom was paid at “Kastopur” station. 

“Kastopur” could be a reference to Krishnapur railway station, which is called Keshtopur by local people. Krishnapur is 40km from Behrampore. Arpita said she called up Dutta’s cellphone several times through the day after receiving the message but they went unanswered. 

“Finally, my husband picked up the phone at 6pm on Sunday,” Arpita said. She said Dutta asked her not to call him up again as the kidnappers had threatened to beat him up if she did. A text message with the same threat was sent some time later from Dutta’s phone. 

Arpita said she called up her husband again at 2.45am on Monday. “He told me he was trying to flee his abductors. He asked me not to call again.”

At 8am yesterday, Arpita received another message from Dutta’s cellphone in which he requested her not to call him. The jeweller’s phone has been switched off since then.

Babu Saha, an employee of a shop adjoining Dutta’s, said the jeweller had gone to collect payments from the neighbourhood at 11am on Sunday. Dutta had requested Saha to look after his shop while he was away. 

Murshidabad chamber of commerce secretary Kalyan Saha said: “The kidnap could be a set-up by Dutta to extract money from his in-laws. He is not that big a trader that he would be kidnapped for a Rs 10 lakh ransom.”

-- Shared by Ratul Das