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Adobe India CEO’s son back; heads explode across country
in confusion
The father, cops and grandfather say vastly different things about how Anant came back; TV viewers driven insane across the country.
BY CORRESPONDENT
November 18, 2006
Three-year-old Anant Gupta, son of Adobe India CEO’ Naresh Gupta who was taken hostage by kidnappers, has been rescued by the UP police. Or at least that is what the police claims.
In a nutshell, these are the claims:
Naresh Gupta: Anant back due to police investigation; no ransom paid.
Police: Police action resulted in Anant being rescued; ransom paid.
Grandfather: Anant came in autorickshaw by himself, no cop was there.
Now you know why you shouldn't read any further. Seriously.
Anant was kidnapped on Monday while on his way school, not far away from his home. The kid was rescued from the Noida border. The police have claimed that they managed to locate the kidnappers who managed to escape. Meanwhile, Anant's grandfather told CNN-IBN that Anant came by himself in an auto rickshaw and the cops had nothing to do with it.
The UP police have not arrested anyone in this connection. The boy is believed to have been kidnapped by a gang consisting of local residents. Though the cops know the names of people involved in the crime, they are not revealing more details in this regard.
The police have said that they have found that Rs 50 lakh was paid as ransom to secure Anant’s release. The cops recovered this money. Earlier, the Adobe India has told the media that he had not paid any ransom to get his son back. Thanking UP chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and SP leader Amar Singh for doing al they could to secure the release of his son, Gupta said they had left no stone unturned to rescue Anant. There were two ransom calls on Monday, one each on Tuesday and Wednesday, and 4 calls on Thursday,” he added.
As soon as the news of the kidnapping trickled in on Monday, police teams had spread out a net to catch the criminals and rescue the boy.
The media had then reported that dreaded dacoit Parihar might have held Anant captive. This provided a lead to the police to intensify efforts to trace the gang, which had kidnapped four villagers from the district about 16 days ago. The STF and the UP Police had set up five additional teams and sought help from the Delhi Police in its investigations.
If you are as confused as we are by now, it is only natural. Our interpretation of all the different contradicting statements is this: Anant was kidnapped, ransom calls were made and money was paid, the kid was sent home in an auto rickshaw, and meanwhile police action helped them recover the money. We do not know the legalities, but it looks like Naresh Gupta does not want to admit in public that ransom was paid. Why not? Cops and laws aside, we would pay a ransom if it was our kid who was kidnapped. And the cops would like to take credit for the kid being back, but while in fact they should be credited only for putting pressure on the kidnappers through their investigations and searches.
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