Five days after a 20-year-old boy was supposedly kidnapped, the Bengaluru police traced him to Tamil Nadu and realized that he had scripted his abduction to escape exams.
On January 19, John Antony Thuppayath, who is in his first-year of pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in history, economics, and political science, sent a shockwave to his flatmate and his mother that he has been kidnapped en route to college, Bangalore Mirror reported.
According to BM, his message also mentioned that he had been`kidnapped in a silver van' and that he was `badly wounded' after being `tortured and not given any food' and kept in an undisclosed location. The kidnappers were demanding a ransom.
John’s distraught parents flew from Kerala and lodged a disappearance and kidnap complaint with the South East division police on January 21 after which the cops took 72 hours to trace John in Chennai, reported BM.
However, police found John had faked the kidnap because he had a drastic shortage of attendance in college, and he did not want to take his exams
“John's mobile phone records revealed he had made calls to several BPO firms seeking jobs in the days leading up to his disappearance. We also traced the messages sent to his mother and friend to his personal laptop. By now, we were certain he would be shacked up at a hotel and in need of money, so we made his parents remit money to his account,” said a senior police officer.
Police found that the money was withdrawn from an ATM in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
On seeing both his parents and the police in Madurai, John claimed he had been 'released' there by the 'kidnappers' but was unsure of their identities.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Dr M B Boralingaiah confirmed that the student had faked his own kidnapping and said, “Preliminary investigations revealed he had not attended classes, which could have led him to enact this drama. The student has taken the police department for a ride, and we will have to see what action to initiate against him.”
This is an aggregated report from Bangalore Mirror.