Kasaragod oil rig worker loses ₹90 lakh in online trade, stages abduction; 4 held, Rajasthan cop involvement suspected

Kasaragod: A bid to recover ₹90 lakh lost in online trading has landed a young oil rig worker in prison, dragging his fiance’s father and three friends down with him. Manjeshwar Police, which arrested the four, said they staged the abduction of the online trader’s father, dressing it up as an official operation of the Rajasthan Police. “We suspect that at least one Rajasthan Police officer was involved in the crime,” said Manjeshwar Station House Officer, Inspector Ajith Kumar P.

The officer identified those arrested as Abdul Gafoor (29) of Pavoor at Kundapp in Vorkady grama panchayat; his fiancee's father, Shihab of Gerukatte in Manjeshwar panchayat; and Shihab’s friends -- Abubacker Anas (27) of Machampady in Manjeshwar panchayat and Rafiq (38) of Mangaluru. They were intercepted and arrested at Sakleshpur, a hill town in Karnataka’s Hassan district.

The suspected Rajasthan Police officer and an agent, Poonamchand, who allegedly helped Gafoor register an FIR in Pali district, escaped before the Manjeshwar team reached Sakleshpur, the officer said. The case centres on the abduction of Abdul Rahman (60), an official with United India Insurance Company in Mangaluru. He was taken from his house at Kumbarkunnu in Manjeshwar late in the night of February 20.

The story, however, began several months earlier. Gafoor, who had been working on an oil rig in a West Asian country, earning about ₹3 lakh a month, returned home after a hereditary condition began weakening his legs. His mother and sister also suffer from the same condition, said police. With his savings intact, he was looking to invest.

That was when his friend -- and Abdul Rahman’s son -- Zamiya persuaded him to try online trading, promising high returns. Gafoor initially handed over ₹10 lakh. He received ₹50,000 each in six tranches, ₹3 lakh in all, creating an impression that his friend Zamiya was good at online trading. Then the payments stopped.

When Gafoor questioned him, Zamiya allegedly advised him to invest more to “recover” the blocked amount. Gafoor poured in the rest of his savings. He then pawned 400 grams of his sister’s gold jewellery. In total, he handed over ₹90 lakh, mostly through bank transactions. But the returns never resumed.

That's when Gafoor first walked into the Manjeshwar police station with a cheating complaint against Zamiya. "We told him it was a civil case and would require a civil court's intervention," said Inspector Ajith Kumar.

But Gafoor wanted to initiate a criminal proceeding to pressure Zamiya to return the money. According to investigators, Gafoor then got in touch with a racket that allegedly helped in registering criminal cheating cases in Rajasthan, for a fee. Criminal cheating cases and person missing cases can be filed anywhere in India, Ajith Kumar said.

Gafoor paid the middleman, Poonamchand, ₹5 lakh, and he allegedly arranged for a cheating case to be registered at Jaitaran Police Station in Pali district. The FIR was not against Zamiya, but against his father, Abdul Rahman. The complainant was Poonamchand, not Gafoor. Manjeshwar police said Poonamchand projected proximity to the Rajasthan police.

On February 19, Gafoor went to the Manjeshwar police and said that the Rajasthan police were arriving to arrest Abdul Rahman. "I thought there was no legal bar on the Rajasthan Police picking him up. Only if they were travelling with him for more than 24 hours, they would require a transit warrant from the court," said Ajith Kumar.

On February 20, around 10.30 pm, Poonamchand and another person in a Rajasthan Police uniform came to Rahman's house and forcibly took him away in a car. Gafoor, Shihab, Rafiq and Anas also accompanied the duo.

Police said Gafoor had booked the flight tickets for the Rajasthan duo to Mangaluru. Except for Gafoor, the others believed they were assisting a lawful arrest, said Ajith Kumar. From Manjeshwar, the group drove to Mysuru, checked into a hotel and began pressuring Rahman to settle the “case” by paying the money. Though not affluent, Rahman reportedly agreed to their demands. They then moved towards Sakleshpura.

By then, Inspector Ajith Kumar had begun to suspect that the so-called arrest was not what it appeared to be. Rahman’s wife, Thahira, also approached the police, alleging that her husband had been kidnapped.

“So I went to Gafoor’s house. He wasn’t there. His phone was switched off,” the officer said. Police promptly registered an FIR for kidnapping based on Thahira’s complaint and began tracking the group through mobile phone locations and vehicle movements.

But Gafoor's gang was in constant touch with Rahman's family to pressurise them to return the money, said the inspector. So they came to know that an FIR for kidnapping was registered. Immediately after that, Poonamchand and the Rajasthan Police officer abandoned Gafoor and returned home, said police. Gafoor and his gang were stranded with their captive. "They had no clue what to do with Rahman. When we intercepted them in Sakleshpura, they were driving around the town in two cars, not knowing what to do," said the officer.

The four were arrested and brought back to Manjeshwar. The two cars were also impounded. Zamiya, meanwhile, has gone into hiding. Police say he has been traced to Bengaluru and may have collected up to ₹3 crore from various investors. Whether he lost it in trading or fell prey to another online fraud remains unclear.

Investigators said Poonamchand would also be made an accused in the kidnapping and illegal detention case. Manjeshwar Police have learned that the original cheating FIR registered at Jaitaran police station was closed, and the officer was on an extrajudicial trip to Kasaragod. Efforts are on to identify the police officer from Rajasthan, Ajith Kumar said and added that "the entire case has become a tragicomedy." What began as an attempt to recover ₹90 lakh has spiralled into criminal charges, jail time, and a larger loss, he said.