The case was cracked within 24 hours and the child was rescued and safely handed over to the family.
A 19-year-old Delhi University (DU) student and her minor brother have been arrested for kidnapping a three-year-old boy in South-West Delhi's Vasant Kunj area.
The brother-sister duo resided as tenants in the house of the victim's family. They decided to kidnap the child to take revenge from his grandfather, who would misbehave with them and abuse them over minor issues.
The duo asked for a ransom of Rs 5 crore, which was negotiated to nearly Rs 48 lakhs. The case was cracked within 24 hours and the child was rescued and safely handed over to the family.
"The accused girl identified as Riya, along with her 16-year-old brother, hatched the conspiracy in August this year. During interrogation, Riya said that the kidnapped child's grandfather would often ill-treat them. The grandfather would randomly slap and abuse people, including them. Riya resided as a tenant on the second floor of the same house," said Devender Arya, deputy commissioner of police, South-West.
Investigating officials said Riya had planned to kidnap the child in August. The brother-sister duo thought of earning some quick bucks while also taking revenge. The duo used WhatsApp cloning as the modus operandi to ensure they are not tracked.
In August, Riya went to a shop in the area and borrowed the mobile phone of a 70-year-old with the excuse that she wanted to make a call. The call was made to her brother to ensure that the senior citizen's number was stored with them. They then downloaded WhatsApp on their phone. To configure the app, and for the verification code, Riya went to the shop again around five days before the incident requested the 70-year-old man to pass on his phone.
"Riya passed on the security code in order to complete the verification. They both were aware that the 70-year-old man did not use WhatsApp and was not even aware of the application. In order to ensure their IP address does not get tracked, they used personal hotspot for internet and also kept their connection open so that others could use it. This was to ensure that in case the police checks on them, then there would be many using the same connection," said the investigating officer.
The police officials first zeroed down on the number which was being used by the senior citizen. "We asked him but he did not even have WhatsApp on his phone, which is when we realised that the number had been cloned and was being used by another person. We tracked the IP addresses but the ransom messages exchanged between the child's father and the accused made us zero down on the number and we traced that it was active in the same house," added the officer. However, the girl had sensed the police's arrival.
The demand for ransom began with Rs 5 crore and was finally negotiated to Rs 48 lakhs over messages. The police then arrested the girl who first tried to dodge them and said that she had carried out the crime with the help of her boyfriend.
To appear truthful, she showed a random person's picture to the police on Facebook, but she was caught. The child was kidnapped on Thursday evening at around 7.30 pm while he was playing outside his house. Since it was dark, the CCTV footage was not clear. The police later scanned all the footages and the minor brother of the girl was seen approaching the house which is when the police confronted the girl and she confessed to his involvement. The girl is a student of Delhi University's Ramanujan college and was a first-year BCom student.
Modus Operandi
19-year-old Riya and her 16-year-old brother cloned the WhatsApp account of a 70-year-old man in order to communicate with the victim’s family for the ransom, without the risk of being caught
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