In a joint operation, Surat and Bharuch police rescued the general manager of a company and his driver, who had been abducted from the construction site of a bullet train in Antroli village, Surat district. There have been seven arrests, including two labor suppliers with payment dues from the firm holding the contract for the bullet train project which were allegedly involved in the kidnapping.
According to Surat police, Rajkumar Gupta (52), the general manager of the firm, was examining the work at Antroli village on October 10 afternoon when the accused travelling in a car reached the site.
The accused had a heated exchange of arguments with Gupta, over pending monetary dues. Manoj Dutta, Gupta’s driver, tried to intervene but was allegedly beaten by the accused, police said.
According to police, they kidnapped Gupta and Dutta in their own car, while one of the abductors drove the car of Gupta and escaped from the spot.
Nitesh Singh Rajput, the supervisor of the project who was present at the spot, tried to chase them and then informed the company headquarters in Haryana about the incident. Singh contacted the Kadodara police station of Surat Rural police in the evening and lodged a complaint in this connection. Police registered an offence under IPC sections 323, 365, 114 and started a probe.
Through technical surveillance and the GPS system fitted in Gupta’s car, Surat police reached Hansot taluka in Bharuch district and found the car lying abandoned on the roadside at Sajod village. After checking the footage of a CCTV camera from the area, police reached Madina Park society in Bharuch town. Bharuch Local Crime branch officials also accompanied Surat rural police and in a joint operation, both the abducted persons were rescued.
The arrested accused were identified as Mujibur Rehman (42) and Shahbul Ashraful Haq (35), both labour suppliers, Imraul Kayes (33), Hassanul Jamal Haq (38), Mohammed Ayesh Sattar (36), Sahabrul Mejarali (42), all residents of Bharuch and native of West Bengal and Mubarak Anwar Diwan (35), a resident of Bharuch.
Surat district Superintendent of police, Usha Rada said that “We carried out the operation within one-and-a-half hours. With the help of technical surveillance, we reached the accused’s house in Bharuch and rescued both the general manager and his driver. We have also seized the abandoned car of the general manager from Hansot.”
She added, “After primary investigations, we came to know that both Mujibur Rehman and Shahbul Haq had pending dues of Rs 15 lakh from the contractor firm for labour supply to work at the bullet train project. The labour suppliers had paid salaries of two months to the labourers by taking it on interest from the market, but they were not getting it cleared the company’s general manager Rajkumar Gupta.”