Alappuzha: In a shocking turn of events, the police said that a 32-year-old woman, who was allegedly abducted from her house in Alappuzha by an unidentified gang in the wee hours of Monday only to be abandoned by the wayside later, had links with gold smuggling racket.
The police claimed that the abduction was schemed by a gold smuggling gang.
The woman, identified as Bindu, who returned from Gulf four days ago, was made to transport 1.5 kilograms of gold by the gang, according to the police. However, she told the police that she had discarded the gold at the airport. The gang abducted her demanding the gold or money worth its value.
The armed gang, which barged into the house by breaking open the front door and took her away, the police said.
Bindu, a native of Kurattikkad, had worked in a supermarket in the Gulf.
After being released by the kidnappers in Vadakkancherry in northern Palakkad, 225 kilometres away from her house, the woman took an autorickshaw and reached the nearest police station.
Bindu told reporters that there were four men in the car, in which she was abducted, and they had asked her for money.
She said she did know whether the kidnappers had any connection with the racket.
Earlier in the day, her family had told the police that Bindu had received some phone calls the other day asking whether she had any gold with her.
When denied there were any, the anonymous callers cut the phone call, they said adding that two people were also found moving under suspicious circumstances near the house after Bindu reached it from abroad. Binoy, her husband, said a group of around 15 men, carrying weapons, rang the calling bell of the house, located in Mannar here, at around 2am.
Though the family tried to alert the police, they barged into the house and abducted her, he added.
