Engineering student held for faking own abduction | India News

KANPUR: UP police announced on Monday that they have solved the alleged kidnapping of a 21-year-old woman engineering student, who was found at Basti railway station late Sunday night with her husband. The police said Hansika Verma, a resident of Barra in Kanpur, had staged her own kidnapping with the help of 22-year-old Raj to extort money from her parents. Both have been charged with extortion and criminal conspiracy and sent to jail.

During the investigation, it was discovered that the couple had secretly married in court on May 22, 2023. Facing financial difficulties, they conspired to fake the kidnapping and demanded a ransom of Rs 10 lakh from her parents.
“The woman left home on August 4, and sent a video with a handkerchief tied around her face to her parents, claiming she had been kidnapped,” an officer said. Later, the man called her parents and demanded the ransom. Hansika’s father Narendra Kumar Verma then reported the kidnapping for ransom to police.

However, with the help of surveillance, police located the couple at Basti railway station and arrested them on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. After questioning, they were charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and produced in court, ACP Naubasta Abhishek Pandey said.
JCP Anand Prakash Tiwari said the kidnapping seemed suspicious from the beginning, and evidence indicated that the woman had an affair with Raj. The investigation revealed that the woman had given Rs 2.21 lakh to Raj from her fixed deposit fund.
Raj had a criminal history and was previously involved in a robbery in Kanpur. Police were also looking into reports of their court marriage.
An officer said the woman, who was studying engineering in a local college, had an account in Punjab National Bank, from which about Rs 10,000 were withdrawn from Thursday to Friday night.
The police are now examining other accounts related to the engineering student as part of the investigation.