Ghaziabad: Mob attacks shop of man accused of kidnapping woman

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad police on Tuesday registered a first information report (FIR) against 50-60 unidentified people for vandalising a 29-year-old man’s shop late Monday evening in a locality that falls under the Indirapuram police station.

According to police, the shop, a common service centre, was operated by the man whose name featured in an FIR on May 25 for alleged wrongful confinement and abduction of a 22-year-old woman. The two belong to different communities and are known to each other.

“A mob gathered in the same locality on May 26 late evening, demanding immediate action against the man and vandalised and damaged the man’s shop. Police teams rushed to the spot and controlled the situation. In connection with the shop’s damage, we took cognizance and registered an FIR against unidentified people. An investigation is underway,” said assistant commissioner of police (ACP) (Indirapuram circle) Abhishek Srivastava.

Police said that the woman operated a beauty parlour at one of the shops hired on rent from the man, who also operated a shop nearby. On May 25, at 12.22am, the woman’s father had registered an FIR, alleging that the man snatched the chain of his wife and also took away his 22-year-old daughter around 6pm on May 24.

“Within 3–4 hours of the FIR, our teams recovered the woman and also the man in Ghaziabad. She was handed over to her family and the man was arrested and sent to jail under Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita section for arrest to prevent commission of cognizable offences, and not under sections levied in the FIR lodged by the woman’s father,” the ACP added.

A few videos later surfacing online purportedly showed the woman claiming that she knew the man for nine years and married him three years ago.

Although the police said that they recovered the woman within hours on May 25, they are yet to get her statements recorded before a magistrate.

“The videos that have surfaced hold no significance as the entire case now depends on the statements which the woman gives before a magistrate… The man will face sections of the FIR (lodged by the woman’s father) if the woman gives her statements against him,” the ACP added.