Meerut: Police are very close to nabbing the culprits in the kidnapping of comedian Sunil Pal, who was held hostage for 24 hours after being lured to Meerut on the pretext of a show. It has now been confirmed that the people who bought jewellery using Pal's name had actually kidnapped him. Police have identified the miscreants after scanning several CCTV cameras.
On Monday, after scanning the CCTV footage of two jewellers of Meerut, Meerut Police have gone through several CCTV cameras of Begumpul and Lalkurti areas. After this, police have concluded that the people who purchased the jewellery by Pal's ransom money were the accused. The duo had gone to two jewellery shops. "The accused are residents of Bijnor district and have been identified. Now, process is on to arrest them," police said.
When the accounts of bullion traders of Meerut were frozen, the matter came to light. Also, police found the taxi driver who brought Pal to Meerut from Delhi. Police are interrogating the driver after taking him into custody.
The taxi driver said that when he had stopped at a dhaba, Pal had gone somewhere, asking him to wait but never returned. Now, the police have also reached the dhaba from where Pal was kidnapped.
SP City Ayush Vikram Singh said that the case is being handled very seriously. On Monday, 10 teams were set up to search the footage of CCTV cameras installed from Delhi-Dehradun Highway to Begumpul in Meerut city. It has now become clear that the miscreants who bought jewellery from two shops of Meerut, Radheshyam Jewellers and Akash Ganga Jewellers, were the same. Presently, police are searching for the people who bought the jewellery.
Earlier Pal took to social media to inform that the miscreants who kidnapped him were speaking the local dialect of Bijnor. They kept him blindfolded for a long time and carried weapons. They have received a contract to kidnap them and were repeatedly saying this to scare him.
Comedian Pal has said that the kidnappers should be sentenced to at least 20 years of imprisonment, because nobody can understand the state of mind of the person who is traumatised on the road like him and said that he has not yet been able to come out of depression. He said that the miscreants, who kidnapped him, released him after about 22 hours and gave him fare to return home.
Pal was at Madhubani Mahotsav in Bihar from 8 pm to 10 pm on December 1. The next day, he was given advance payment and a flight ticket from Darbhanga to Delhi and was supposed to go to Haridwar. He got an Innova vehicle from Delhi, in which he left for Haridwar. On way, he received a call on WhatsApp and a photograph of a dhaba on the highway was shared to him. He was asked to have his breakfast at the dhaba.
This dhaba is located on Kankarkheda bypass of Meerut. Sometime later, a few people came to the dhaba in two vehicles. A youth got down from the car and told him that he was his fan. After this, Pal was kidnapped from the spot on the pretext of introducing him to two persons sitting in the car. Then, the accused, who kidnapped Pal, collected a ransom of around Rs 8 lakh.
The comedian said that he contacted his friends to arrange the ransom. The comedian's wife later registered a case in Mumbai.
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