Five persons, including a pilot working with a commercial airline, were arrested on Saturday for allegedly kidnapping three members of a farmer’s family, who were rehabilitated for giving up land for the upcoming Noida International Airport at Jewar, with an aim to create hurdles in the project.
Police said the accused intended to falsely implicate police and administrative officials, creating hurdles in the airport’s land acquisition and rehabilitation process to extract unethical financial benefits.
The farmer, Hansraj, along with his wife Kamlesh Devi and son Saurabh, was kidnapped under the pretext of medical treatment from Jewar’s Rohi village at Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. They were rescued by the police from outside Dayanatpur village in Jewar.
The police identified the accused as Captain Puttan Singh and his wife Sarojbala, residents of Noida’s Sector 135; Pawan Chaudhary and Pramod, residents of Dayanatpur village in Jewar; and Ramadevi, a resident of Maidan Garhi in Delhi.
“They have been charged with the kidnapping of Hansraj, his wife Kamlesh Devi, and their son Saurabh, residents of Rohi village in Jewar,” Greater Noida DCP Saad Miya Khan told mediapersons.
He said that Hansraj and his family were among the residents of the six villages that were rehabilitated during the first stage of the airport’s development.
“However, Hansraj, Kamlesh Devi, Saurabh, and their other son, Sonu, objected to shift to the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) site and had been staying at their house in Rohi for the last three years. On May 29, the family was moved by the Jewar sub-district magistrate and sent to the R&R site,” he added.
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The same day, Saurabh allegedly admitted his parents to Kailash Hospital in Jewar, who were reportedly discharged on June 4. However, Khan said on June 2, Sonu filed a Habeas Corpus petition in the Allahabad High Court against police and administrative officers, alleging illegal detention of his father, mother and brother Saurabh.
“On June 9, the petition was accepted by the court, which directed the police to present the three before it,” the police said in a statement, adding that the HC has scheduled its next hearing on July 7.
An officer said that the police suspect that sometime between May 29 and June 2, the accused approached Saurabh and his parents and offered to take the couple to another facility for better treatment. Following this, they went missing.
The police said seven teams were set up to search for them. During the investigation, the three were found hostage in a secluded enclosure outside Dayanatpur village. “The accused had conspired to kidnap them to cause hindrance and disorder in the relocation policy of the Noida International Airport,” said the DCP.
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The police have registered an FIR under Section 140(3) (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Jewar police station.
