Perhaps Naresh Gupta of Adobe was lucky or smart enough to follow these golden rules once he knew Anant was kidnapped. Still shaking his head at the trauma, Gupta, while recalling those torrid days of November, 2007, says, “Of course, there were troubled faces all over, and there were many people in the house; but I simply told them to take care of themselves, as I had to spend more quality time thinking about the next step, rather than waste time in grief, thinking about what had happened!” Nor did Naresh agree immediately to whatever the kidnappers demanded. Back in Delhi on late Monday night, Naresh exchanged anxious phone calls at least five times a day with the kidnappers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. All this, while putting up a brave front in front of Noida cops and the hordes of journalists who were providing round the clock coverage of the ‘sensation’. Of course, Naresh also took the help of a Philippines based security professional who has handled numerous cases of abduction. “He told me”, Naresh recalls, “It’s a business deal. They have your asset (son) and you have the consideration (Rs.6 million)… No harm will come to the child if you give them what they want.” After three days of negotiations, Naresh paid the ransom on Friday and Anant came back home safe on Saturday, November 17, 2007, almost six days after he was kidnapped. Contrast this with the tragic experience of Sanjay Chawla and his family. His son Ribhu was kidnapped at about 2.45 PM on July 28, 2009. The advance ransom amount of Rs.1.5 million was paid the same day. And yet, Ribhu was killed and his body discovered the next morning. While explaining the uncertain acts of the abductors, former CBI officer Pandit avers, “It is virtually impossible to predict how criminals react...”
The Anant and Ribhu kidnapping cases also reveal another emerging and disturbing trend: more and more of such cases are now the handiwork of first time, petty or even ‘amateur’ criminals while most abductions till a decade or so ago were done by organised crime syndicates. Two cases reveal how kidnapping was a more focussed and ‘organised’ operation in those days.
Back in 1998, Ahmedabad was in a tizzy when rumours spread that up and coming entrepreneur and budding industrialist “Gautam Adani has been kidnapped” by gangsters. Recalls a veteran journalist Jayesh Gadhvi, “I was covering some small crime bits here and there but at large, there was not a single interesting news in the city that could raise my eyebrow. But late that evening, I was informed that Adani had been kidnapped and that alert had been declared in the city.” An FIR was registered in Ahmedabad and Jayesh and fellow media professionals furiously chased the story for the next week or so. According to him, though there were many rumours and distortions, his informal interactions with the police convinced him that the kidnapping was indeed genuine and had been done by Fazl-Ur-Rahman, a member of the notorious Dawood Ibrahim gang. Nobody knows how much money, if any, exchanged hands; nor is anyone willing to talk about the ‘case’ at the moment. Even the cops shy away saying that “the case is too old to be discussed.” That is understandable, given Gautam Adani’s stature and profile as a billionaire entrepreneur. In fact, dozens of entrepreneurs and tycoons in Mumbai have quietly paid ransom demands to organised crime syndicates to avoid being kidnapped or killed; though no one is willing to go on record with their names. Bombay is “off the record” replete with stories of how real estate magnates, owners of restaurants and bars, movie producers, directors and stars and even blue blooded industrialists routinely receive menacing phone calls from Dubai and Karachi. But then, even cops are not willing to take names except admitting that Dawood Ibrahim and his henchmen are still active.
While nobody want to talk about the alleged Adani abduction, family members of Partha Roy Burman are far more forthcoming. A director of the closely held Khadim Shoes was abducted from near his factory in Kolkatta in July, 2001. Police investigations revealed that the kidnapping was carried out by a gang called Asif Reza Commando Force which had Dubai based gangster Aftab Ansari as the head. Ansari is also known to be former henchman of Dawood Ibrahim is now facing trial in Kolkatta for the brutal murder of 22 policemen in a terror attack in Kolkatta in January, 2001. Family members and friends insist that crores were exchanged for the safe recovery of Roy.
The Anant and Ribhu kidnapping cases also reveal another emerging and disturbing trend: more and more of such cases are now the handiwork of first time, petty or even ‘amateur’ criminals while most abductions till a decade or so ago were done by organised crime syndicates. Two cases reveal how kidnapping was a more focussed and ‘organised’ operation in those days.
Back in 1998, Ahmedabad was in a tizzy when rumours spread that up and coming entrepreneur and budding industrialist “Gautam Adani has been kidnapped” by gangsters. Recalls a veteran journalist Jayesh Gadhvi, “I was covering some small crime bits here and there but at large, there was not a single interesting news in the city that could raise my eyebrow. But late that evening, I was informed that Adani had been kidnapped and that alert had been declared in the city.” An FIR was registered in Ahmedabad and Jayesh and fellow media professionals furiously chased the story for the next week or so. According to him, though there were many rumours and distortions, his informal interactions with the police convinced him that the kidnapping was indeed genuine and had been done by Fazl-Ur-Rahman, a member of the notorious Dawood Ibrahim gang. Nobody knows how much money, if any, exchanged hands; nor is anyone willing to talk about the ‘case’ at the moment. Even the cops shy away saying that “the case is too old to be discussed.” That is understandable, given Gautam Adani’s stature and profile as a billionaire entrepreneur. In fact, dozens of entrepreneurs and tycoons in Mumbai have quietly paid ransom demands to organised crime syndicates to avoid being kidnapped or killed; though no one is willing to go on record with their names. Bombay is “off the record” replete with stories of how real estate magnates, owners of restaurants and bars, movie producers, directors and stars and even blue blooded industrialists routinely receive menacing phone calls from Dubai and Karachi. But then, even cops are not willing to take names except admitting that Dawood Ibrahim and his henchmen are still active.
While nobody want to talk about the alleged Adani abduction, family members of Partha Roy Burman are far more forthcoming. A director of the closely held Khadim Shoes was abducted from near his factory in Kolkatta in July, 2001. Police investigations revealed that the kidnapping was carried out by a gang called Asif Reza Commando Force which had Dubai based gangster Aftab Ansari as the head. Ansari is also known to be former henchman of Dawood Ibrahim is now facing trial in Kolkatta for the brutal murder of 22 policemen in a terror attack in Kolkatta in January, 2001. Family members and friends insist that crores were exchanged for the safe recovery of Roy.
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