Outside View: Anant kidnapping: more to it than meets the eye

By Maxwell Pereira Nov 21, 2006, 11:41 GMT

The developments in the Anant Gupta kidnapping case of Noida look ominous. There definitely seems to be more to it than meets the eye. Is there a clear-cut criminal-politician nexus here? Is the police administration in Uttar Pradesh being held to ransom by political bosses to toe their line in the deadly game of criminal protection and sharing of spoils? To understand fully the complex dimensions, it would be necessary to recapitulate the turn of events.

Little Anant, three-year-old son of Adobe Systems India CEO Naresh Gupta, was whisked away by two motorcycle riding suspected miscreants on Monday, Nov 13, from near his Sector 15-A home in Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi. A maidservant was taking him to the school bus stop when he was kidnapped. Naresh Gupta was in the US and returned the next day.

For five days, there was no news about the whereabouts of the missing child, though the Uttar Pradesh Police kept claiming to be in possession of vital information and clues. All the while the child's family kept appealing to the media not to highlight the abduction as the kidnappers might panic and hurt their child. It was given out there were no ransom calls, though now it is out that demands for money were made over telephone every day.

As the nodal agency to handle inter-state crime in the vicinity, Delhi Police also joined the search for the boy, given the capital's proximity to the satellite town. The anti-kidnapping wing of the Crime Branch and Special Cell got into the fray collecting inputs about the activities of various criminal gangs operating in Delhi, Meerut, Muzzaffarnagar and other parts of western Uttar Pradesh.

The police questioning did not spare even the first wife of Naresh Gupta, separated about 10 years ago and based in the US, now on a visit to India along with their 14-year-old son.

On Thursday, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the chief minister, told the media that the child would be returned safely to his parents.

As if in compliance with Yadav's supreme command, on Friday Anant returned alone in an autorickshaw - the auto driver claiming that two men gave him Rs.50 with the child at a fuel station in Sarita Vihar in Delhi, close to NOIDA, and also provided him the Sector 15-A address to reach the child home.

NOIDA and Ghaziabad police authorities and the Uttar Pradesh home secretary simultaneously issued conflicting statements that the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force and Noida Police rescued the boy in a joint operation at Kakore village from near the Noida-Bulandshahr border, that he was rescued a little after noon Friday and immediately returned to his family. No details were provided.

A TV channel in the meanwhile interviewed a masked man claiming to be Ashok Kalia of the Kalia gang stating that the child was released only after a ransom payment of Rs.50 million was made to the Sirohi and Bhatti gangs of Uttar Pradesh who had kidnapped him. To further muck up the issue, a segment of the police investigation team confirmed seizing about Rs.5 million (50 lakhs) of the ransom money. Confusion confounded indeed.

Amidst allegations of frame up, the police have arrested a man, Jeetendra, and are now claiming that the kidnapping was the handiwork of four people - Jeetendra, Chatrapal, Pawan and Vijay Chauhan. It is intriguing how Jeetendra has been sent to judicial custody without the police requesting for his custody on police remand as would normally be expected - to assist them in unravelling fully the kidnapping saga and mystery, and take his assistance in nabbing the stated co-accused.

While Naresh Gupta, the child's father, supports the police version of his child being rescued, Anant's grandfather told the media that Anant came home alone in the auto. In the face of the conflicting stories, Naresh Gupta's blind support of the police version raises eyebrows. But can a parent really be blamed for toeing the demanded line and doing whatever in his might to save his child?

So in the resultant confusion, there are questions and questions: Was Anant rescued at all, or delivered? If rescued, from where exactly was he rescued/ recovered, and by who? If he was released and delivered, what were the circumstances? What about ransom? Was there really any exchange of money? If yes, how and where was the ransom delivered?

On the other hand, if it were really a good job of sleuthing done by the police - an absolutely commendable work as is being forcefully projected by Naresh Gupta, then why the conflicting versions from the police - both regarding the rescue, and the payment/recovery of ransom? Is the reason for confusion due to the political monitoring of the case? Were there parleys between the kidnapped child's family, the police and the criminals through political mediators? Is that why the confusion? Will the political leadership in the state clarify these nagging and ominous projectiles?

(Maxwell Pereira is a former joint commissioner of Delhi Police and can be reached at mfjpkamath@gmail.com)

© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service