A 17-year-old boy from Gharuan was allegedly kidnapped after being lured via text messages on the pretext of meeting a girl who he was talking to on Instagram. The police recovered the boy safely within hours near a grocery store in Kharar’s grain market. A case has been registered against Jagtar Singh, Prince, alias Pradeep, Amandeep Singh, Tari, Mang and other unidentified individuals under sections pertaining to kidnapping and illegal confinement.
The police have arrested some of the accused, while raids are ongoing to search for others. In a statement to the police, Gharuan resident Jaswinder Singh said that his 17-year-old son, Rahulpreet Singh, who works with him as a vegetable vendor, had gone to buy medicines from Kharar Sub-Divisional Hospital on a motorcycle with his friend Manjot Singh around 11 am on Wednesday. However, he did not return home until evening, and his mobile phone was switched off.
After some time, Manjot Singh called Rahulpreet’s family and told them that a girl he had been chatting with on Instagram had invited Rahulpreet to meet her at Noor Dhaba on Chunni Road. When the two arrived, they were surrounded by a white car and bike borne youths. They were allegedly beaten and Rahulpreet was forcibly taken into the car, while Manjot sustained injuries during the incident and was hospitalised.
The victim’s family members claimed that the incident stemmed from an ongoing feud with another family over a fight that had taken place near the grain market in Kharar a while ago.
