Ahmedabad:
Three persons were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly kidnapping a nine-year-old girl, police said. The accused had released her after the ransom was paid.
"The girl's neighbour Chintan Desai (27) along with Mohsin Pathan (23) and Shahrukh Mirza (18) have been arrested from the city, while the fourth person is absconding," crime branch Joint Commissioner Mohan Jha told mediapersons.
"An unloaded country-made revolver, a knife and mobile phones have been recovered from the accused," he said.
"Rs 83.70 lakh out of the Rs 85 lakh ransom which the girl's father had handed over to the abductors, has been recovered," Jha said, adding, the balance cash was with the absconding accused who has been identified as Rajendra alias Raju, from Madhya Pradesh.
Dhruva Patel (9), daughter of a city-based builder, was allegedly abducted by them from Thaltej area while she was going to school in a van on Tuesday morning. She was recovered later from near Palej-Sanakha cross road in Anand after her father paid ransom to the abductors.
Jha said that after Dhruva's father handed over the ransom amount to abductors, as per the plan, and the girl was released, he informed police about where the abductors were heading.
The police then started chasing them. During the chase, the abductors lost control of their car and crashed on to road divider. Then the four men abandoned the vehicle as well as the cash and escaped. However, one of the abductors, Rajendra, managed to take Rs 1.3 lakh from the bag before running away.
Jha said that on searching the car, police found a health card of Desai, which revealed that he was a neighbour of the girl's. He was traced from location of his mobile phone and arrested on Wednesday from the city. On his interrogation, Mohsin and Shahrukh were arrested.
Desai has allegedly told the crime branch officials that he did all this for money. Dhruva used to come to his house to get tuitions from his mother. Desai has a CNG gas kit dealership in partnership with his brother. He met Shahrukh who worked for his brother, and through Shahrukh he got to know Mohsin. They hatched the kidnapping plan about a month ago, he told the police.