Rising abduction cases give sleepless nights to cops

RANCHI: The sudden spurt in abduction in Simdega district has given sleepless night to police as the kidnapping is done by CPI (Maoist) and its two splinter groups - the People Liberation Front of India (PLFI) and the Pahari Cheeta. In the past few months, the rebels have abducted at least 20 people including an elderly school teacher for ransom.

police sources said in the past two-three months, more than 20 cases of abduction came to light. Of them, around 10 were registered in different police stations. The school teacher saved his life by paying Rs 50,000 to the abductors. "Around 50% cases are not reported to police as family members fear threat to life of the victim," said a source.

Simdega SP Prabhat Kumar confirmed that police were in a tight situation because of rise in number of abduction cases in the district. "All rebel groups operating in the district have adopted this as a means to generate money. The three main groups which are engaged in abduction are CPI (Maoist), PLFI and Pahari Cheeta," said the SP adding that in the past few months, police had managed to arrest some of the rebels.

"We have arrested Chotu Singh of the PLFI, Binde Shah of the Pahari Cheeta and Girija and Sohan of the CPI (Maoist). We have also recovered Rs 2 lakh that was collected as ransom from the family of the victims," the SP added. tnn

On the range of ransom the rebels demanded, the SP said it could be any thing between Rs 10,000 to Rs 5 lakh. "The amount depends on the financial status of the family of the victim and their negotiating capacity. I know one case where the demand was Rs 5 lakh but the family member negotiated and paid Rs 2 lakh for safe release of the victim," Kumar said.

He said most of the time the abductors contacted family members by sending notes (parcha) but at times they even called on telephone.
Source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/Rising-abduction-cases-give-sleepless-nights-to-cops/articleshow/13503694.cms