A 21-year-old woman from Madhya Pradesh, who was staying at a hostel in Rajasthan's Kota for coaching classes, allegedly faked her kidnapping to raise money to travel abroad with her friend, police said.
The woman, identified as Kavya, came to coaching hub Kota from Madhya Pradesh last year to take coaching classes, a news agency PTI report quoted police as saying.
The woman had been sending pictures and messages to dupe her parents into believing that she was still in Rajasthan’s coaching hub, Kota police added.
Recently, her parents, who stay in MP's Shivpuri, were shocked after receiving a ransom demand of Rs 30 lakh and pictures of their daughter with her hands and feet tied.
On March 18, her father Raghuveer Dhakad lodged a complaint with Kota police alleging that Kavya had been abducted.
Police launched a probe and found that Kavya was last reported to be in Indore on Tuesday (March 19) evening, Kota Superintendent of Police Amrita Duhan said in a press conference on Wednesday.
Woman Wanted To Flee Abroad, Stayed In Kota Hostel For 3 Days Only
During investigation, it was revealed that the woman stayed in a hostel in Kota for three days and after her mother left her she moved to Indore and had been living there ever since with her two male friends, the SP said.
The woman misled her parents by sending them messages of class tests and her presence in classes in the name of the coaching institute, the SP added.
According to one of her friends, who is cooperating with the police, Kavya and the other friend, who is believed to be with her right now, wanted to flee abroad but did not have enough money so they staged the abduction in order to seek ransom, SP Amrita Duhan said, adding that the woman got pictures of her staged kidnapping clicked in a common friend's room.
Circle Inspector Satish Chaudhary said the woman and her two friends kept their mobiles switched off. They studied in Indore and were planning to leave for abroad for study, he said.
Earlier, Chaudhary had also said that during the preliminary investigation, police did not find any record of the woman's admission to the institute or in the hostel that her father mentioned.
The actual circumstances would be clear only after the woman is rescued, however, on the basis of the leads so far, police found no evidence that she had been abducted, SP Duhan said, adding that Kavya was accompanied by her two friends to Jaipur on March 18.
Once Kavya is traced and rescued, it will be clear is she did this under under pressure or free will, she said.
The Kota Police has reportedly appealed to the woman and her friend to report to a nearby police station or contact her worried parents.
