Thane, Oct 27 (PTI) Police have arrested a school bus driver here for allegedly threatening to kidnap a 15-year-old student, who used to travel in his vehicle, and demanding Rs 4 lakh from the boy’s parents, officials said on Monday.
The bus driver, who also operated a mobile phone and SIM card shop at Kashimira in Maharashtra’s Thane district, had planned the extortion in an attempt to make quick money, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone I, Rahul Chavan told reporters.
The boy’s mother, a resident of Kashimira, received a text message from an unknown mobile number on Saturday, threatening to kidnap the teenager if she failed to pay Rs 4 lakh. She immediately approached the local police.
The investigators traced the message to a number linked with a local mobile phone shop.
The school bus driver also owned a mobile and SIM card shop. He took the SIM card of one of his less-educated customers and replaced it with an inactive one, the official said.
The driver then used the active SIM card to send threats to the boy’s family via WhatsApp. He also used a photo of the boy in his possession to send ransom messages to his mother, the official said.
The police questioned the bus driver, Hariram Soma (37), who confessed to the crime, he said. The accused, also a resident of the Kashimira area, was arrested on Sunday, he added.
“Police ensured the child was not harmed. Within hours of receiving the complaint, our technical team traced the digital trail, identified the suspect and took him into custody,” Chavan said.
The accused has been booked on charges of criminal intimidation and extortion under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act.
The police have information that the accused targeted four parents of the children whom he ferried to school in his bus, and are investigating it, the official said. PTI COR GK
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