‘Kidnapped’ Doctor Returns Home After 12 Days, Refuses to Talk

New Delhi: An Assam-based doctor who was allegedly kidnapped from the Capital has returned home after 12 days but refused to share any information with police, adding mystery to his kidnapping probe.

The incident has also brought under scanner the guest records of Assam Bhavan and Arunachal Bhavan in Delhi, where the prime suspect in the case – who is known to the doctor – is believed to have stayed, a senior police official said.

Multiple teams are working on the case, with one each been sent to Rajasthan, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh. Today, the five-member team, which was already in Arunachal Pradesh since September 30, was sent to Dibrugarh to get the entire story.

However, the doctor has refused to talk to the team, said the senior official.

According to police, the doctor, identified as Hemhari Pegu, owns a private hospital in Assam’s Dibrugarh town, had come to Delhi on September 23. In the evening, he went out of the hotel claiming that he had to get tatkal tickets done for Chandigarh but went missing thereafter.

On September 25, his wife called up the police and reported that he was untraceable for the past two days. A police team was sent to the central Delhi hotel where the doctor was staying and it turned out that he was last seen on September 23 evening. A missing report was registered immediately.

On September 27, the doctor’s wife reported that she had received a call from an unidentified person who claimed that the doctor had borrowed Rs. 5 crore from him.

He further allegedly claimed to have abducted the doctor and promised that he would be set free once he recovers his money. The family was given two days’ time to meet the demand.

With this, the police registered a case of kidnapping and started tracing the doctor’s last location. It emerged that he had made the last call from Chanakyapuri area and the concerned tower was named after a five-star hotel nearby.

Records of the hotel were checked but no relevant details were found, said the senior official.

Meanwhile, the kidnapper’s deadlines for meeting the demand went on changing from September 29 to October 2 and so on. Also, the multiple numbers through which the kidnapers had called up were tracked at Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Nagaland.

Technical surveillance also disclosed that the kidnapped doctor was moved between all these states except Nagaland.

“We kept guiding the family about how to trick the kidnappers and went on getting leads one after another,” the senior official said.

When the police joined the dots – based on leads obtained through technical surveillance – they stumbled upon a councillor from Arunachal Pradesh, who is believed to be a close associate of the doctor, and later turned out to be one of the main suspects during the probe.

Last evening, the doctor’s wife called up the police and informed that her husband has returned. When asked whether they had paid the ransom money, she did not reply and disconnected the call before any further details could be sought, said the official.

Till now, police have questioned about a dozen persons and a notorious auto-lifter in Delhi has presently turned out to be the person who had carried out the kidnapping, the senior official added.