Moradabad: A criminal was injured in an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Saturday morning.
The accused
Vishal (28), a resident of Rajpura Chowki in Almora, Uttarakhand was injured in the neck in the encounter and was admitted to the district hospital. Police also arrested his accomplices Sajal Kumar (20) of Kaneli Kotwali in Almora and Karan Bisht (20), a resident of Malgaon in Almora. They had allegedly kidnapped a manager of Jio Fiber in a car from Hathras.
SP, City Ranveer Singh said Jio Fiber manager Abhinav Bhardwaj was kidnapped by the accused following which the Noida unit of STF started an operation to rescue him. The team surrounded the criminals in the car at 5 am near the District Magistrate's residence in Civil Lines police station area. On seeing the police team, the accused started firing. The STF also fired in retaliation and Vishal was injured in the encounter that ensued.
The encounter
The accused were in a car with Bhardwaj whom they had kidnapped from Hathras. They were in the car with Bhardwaj in Moradabad when the STF team intercepted them. While Bhardwaj was rescued after the encounter, Rs 50,000 in cash, a mobile phone and other items were recovered from the accused. The accused had arrived in Moradabad to collect the ransom of Rs 20 lakh they had demanded from Bhardwaj's family. The three had demanded the money in the name of notorious criminal Tillu Tajpuria who was killed in Tihar Jail by his rivals.
The kidnapping
Bhardwaj,a manager in Jio Fiber, resides in Mohalla Naval Nagar under Hathras Gate police station. He had left home for Sikandrarao on the afternoon of January 1. As he did not return, his family started looking for him. In the missing report filed by his wife Sweety, it was mentioned that the search for her husband continued till evening. At 9 pm, Bhardwaj's colleagues were contacted to know his whereabouts. After this, an unknown person called on Sweety's mobile phone. He said Bhardwaj had been kidnapped and will be released if the family paid Rs 20 lakh. The miscreants threatened they will kill Bhardwaj if Sweety went to the police.
Hathras SP Chiranjeev Nath Sinha said a case was registered in Hathras Gate police station on the basis of a complaint filed by Bhardwaj's family. As many as four teams including SWAT/surveillance were deployed. Coordination was established with the STF team. He said Bhardwaj was taken to Uttarakhand by the accused after he was kidnapped.
