NEW DELHI: The 15-year-old son of a Mumbai-based share broker, who was kidnapped from Kota in Rajasthan on June 10, was rescued from Ghaziabad on Monday in a joint operation by the Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police. One person has been arrested and Rs. 3 crores ransom money recovered.

The Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Ranjit Narayan, said Vaibhav Aggarwal, son of Ram Dev Aggarwal, was kidnapped outside his hostel in Kota. The Rajasthan police then contacted the Delhi Police Crime Branch. After over a fortnight of surveillance, the police arrested Jai Kumar from Khatouli in Uttar Pradesh with the help of the Special Task Force (STF) of the U.P. police. The other two accused, Rahul Dev Tyagi and Sanjeev Sharma, are absconding. Rahul, an engineer working as a contractor with Ghaziabad Development Authority, had masterminded the kidnapping, the police said.

Kota's Superintendent of Police, Bhupinder Kumar, said here the three accused had approached Vaibhav, who was preparing for IIT in Kota, as acquaintances of his uncle who was a doctor in Pondicherry. They asked him the way to another coaching institute. Vaibhav got into their vehicle to show them the way. They offered him a drug-laced cold drink which left Vaibhav unconscious. He was taken to various places before they hid him in a rented flat at GDA officers' colony in Ghaziabad.

The next day, Vaibhav's family got a call at their Mumbai residence demanding Rs. 10 crores. Following negotiations, the deal was fixed at Rs. 3 crores. The kidnappers wanted him to pay the ransom amount somewhere in Delhi. But later asked him to pay it in Dehra Dun.

Following directions from the police, Mr. Aggarwal was on his way to Dehra Dun on Monday to pay the ransom when the kidnappers asked him to return to Delhi and pay the amount in the Capital itself. After some time, Mr. Aggarwal was again asked to pay the ransom at Chital restaurant in Khatouli, U.P.

A joint police team laid a trap near the restaurant around 11 p.m. on Monday. The kidnappers asked Mr. Aggarwal to keep the ransom amount in a Maruti car. He did as directed by them and left the place. Jai Kumar came there and drove the car away. But the waiting police team caught him at some distance. At his instance, the police raided the GDA Officers' Flat and rescued Vaibhav. The police said Rahul's involvement was rather baffling as he came from a well-to-do family. While Rahul's father retired as a senior officer from a drug company, his mother was a teacher in Central School. His wife is a doctor in the Army.

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