The plot

On July 6, Sreekanth Goud, who practices at the Metro Hospital in east Delhi’s Preet Vihar booked a cab to go to south Delhi, but the driver instead took him to Dadri, where other kidnappers joined them.

”After abducting Goud, the abductors called the cab providers and asked for Rs 5 crore as ransom to release him. They used different numbers and SIM cards to make the calls so that they are not traced. They even shot some of his videos and sent them to his family members in Hyderabad and the company,” a police officer told Hindustan Times.

The 13-day chase

The policemen then spoke to the kidnappers posing as representatives of Ola and promised they would pay the ransom amount since it was their customer who had been kidnapped.

Around 200 Delhi cops were deployed for search operations and their efforts finally paid off when they managed to track down the location of the accused in Daurala village in Meerut. Delhi police also roped in assistance from the Meerut police in the operation.

On July 16, a police team was just metres away from the kidnappers travelling in a vehicle in Meerut, but they fled through some fields there. However, the police were able to identify the Ola driver as Sushil and his brother Anuj, who are residents of Dadri village.

After the accused were identified, the police started questioning their families and their teams also started scanning nearby villages. On Wednesday evening, the Delhi Police team received information that the doctor was being held captive at a house in Partapur village in Meerut.

The climax (Shootout)

The police team then surrounded the place where the doctor was being held captive. 

Following an exchange of fire between the Meerut and Delhi Police teams and the kidnappers, the doctor was rescued and four accused were nabbed, said the officer. At least three-four rounds were exchanged during which one of the kidnappers was hit on the thigh, reported The Times Of India.

The doctor is being brought to Delhi by a police team. 

The motive

It was found that Sushil’s brother Anuj had also earlier worked with Ola. He was supposedly miffed with Ola due to alleged non-payment of incentives and wanted to teach the cab aggregator a lesson. Both Sushil and Anuj are yet to be arrested.

It also emerged that the main accused in the case, Sushil had first applied to Uber, but he was rejected for not having the necessary documents. He got a job with Ola after forging registration papers and acquiring a driver’s license using these fake papers. Gaud was his first Ola passenger.

After the case was solved, Ola has released a statement saying,

“We are extremely relieved on the safe return of Dr. Sreekanth Goud from the hands of the kidnapper. The last few days have been extremely stressful for Dr. Sreekanth and his family. We extend our good wishes and prayers to the family in this time of joyful reunion.

We are grateful for the enormous effort and degree of diligence from the police who have helped in Dr. Sreekanth’s safe return.

We continue to cooperate with the police in their investigations, to ensure that the culprits are brought to justice. We will also continue to support and assist the family to help them fully recover from the aftershocks of this harrowing crime.”

(With inputs from PTI)