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| Rohtas superintendent of police Chandan Kumar Kushwaha with the arrested members of the gang on Saturday. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary |
Be alert while travelling with family at night on national highways connecting Rohtas and Kaimur districts with Uttar Pradesh as chances of abduction and robbery by car-borne gangs has gone up.
Such a gang was busted by Rohtas police on Saturday though.
The high-profile gang of kidnappers used to target those found to be travelling with family at night on national highways between Mohania in Kaimur and Ara in Bhojpur.
At least three such incidents have been reported on the 100km stretch, notoriously known as “danger zone”, within a month.
A senior manager of a nationalised bank posted in Jabalpur, Sanjay Kumar, fell prey to the high-tech gang. Sanjay, who was on way to his native village in Bhojpur district from Jabalpur to celebrate Diwali and Chhath, was intercepted by a sports utility vehicle near Maliabagh on NH-30 on October 22.
Sanjay, with his wife and two children, were kidnapped at gunpoint, taken to Nokha in Rohtas district and subsequently confined in a dark and dingy room. They also asked his wife to hand over the gold ornaments.
To Sanjay’s utter dismay, two of the five kidnappers took his (banker’s) ATM card and withdrew money amounting to Rs 1.90 lakh in two instalments from an automated teller machine near Sasaram railway junction. (The card has the facility of transaction of Rs 1 lakh in a single day). The money was withdrawn at midnight on two different dates (intervening night of October 22 and October 23).
The kidnappers let off the banker and his relatives after that. Sanjay heaved a sigh of relief after being released by the kidnappers and drove straightway to his home, around 55km northeast of the abduction site. The next day, he reported the matter to Dawath police station in Rohtas district.
This is not an isolated incident. On November 4, Arun Kumar Rai, a practising lawyer of Patna High Court, and his family were robbed of gold jewellery worth Rs 2 lakh. The lawyer’s ATM card, railway pass and other valuables were also taken by the same gang in an area falling under the jurisdiction of the Dinara police station (Rohtas).
A similar incident had earlier happened with a businessman last month, when he was returning to Patna from Bhabua in Kaimur district. The victim’s identity has been withheld on request because he is a frequent visitor to his ancestral house at Bhabua, the Kaimur district headquarters.
Rohtas superintendent of police Chandan Kumar Kushwaha said a special team was formed after they received complaints about robbery and kidnapping on highways.
On Saturday, the SIT swung into action and nabbed five members from Parmeshwarpur village. The arrested gangsters — Akhilesh Kumar, Sunil Ram, Dhanji Choudhary, Mahendra Kumar and Inder Ram, all residents of Rohtas — confessed to their crimes. Kushwaha said the ATM card of the high court lawyer and his identity card besides Rs 35,000 incash were found during the raid.
The gangsters, who were active on the national highways for long, also confessed to their involvement in the bank manager’s loot-cum-kidnapping case. A luxury vehicle belonging to the gang, which has eight to 10 members on its roll, was also seized.
Bank manager Sanjay said he had been under an impression that law and order was no more an issue in Bihar. “But I was proved wrong,” Sanjay said over phone from Jabalpur on Sunday. No untoward incident happened with his family till they reached Bihar.