A taxi driver in Mumbai was arrested on Friday for staging his own abduction to extort Rs 1 lakh from his wife and her brother as ransom. Police reported that the accused, Jitendra Yadav, 27 lives with his wife in Shukla Compound and he had racked up debts and was unable to repay them. Yadav drives cabs for Ola.

His friend Indrakumar Yadav, 26, who is also a taxi driver helped him in staging his own kidnapping. An officer at Oshiwara police station said Indrakumar tied Jitendra’s hands behind his back and shot a video in which Jitendra claimed to have been kidnapped, and pleaded to be rescued. The accused then sent the video to his wife, sister and brother-in-law Sushilkumar Yadav who live in Uttar Pradesh. Posing as the kidnapper, he demanded a ransom of Rs 40,000 from his family, police reported.

Sushilkumar Yadav approached the police and told them about the video. Sub inspector Sajjan Landge said they tracked Jitendra around 11.30pm, some distance away from the police station near the Tarapore Gardens building and found him sleeping in his cab parked on the side of the road perfectly safe. Initially, Jitendra claimed the kidnapper took him to Thane where he was tied and locked up. But he couldn’t explain how he escaped.

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Police said Jitendra did not think that his family would go to the police, he just assumed they would pay the ransom. The police tracked the location of Jitendra’s phone through which he was communicating with his family. Both men have been charged for kidnapping and extortion under Indian Penal Code.

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