The kidnapping of Sunil Pal and Mushtaq Khan, who were lured to events under the guise of invitations, had sparked widespread concern in the entertainment industry...
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00:00after Mushtaq Khan was allegedly kidnapped and tortured for 12 hours.
00:04Comedian Sunil Pal said he was also abducted and held hostage for 24 hours.
00:09Both incidents took place within a 12-day span.
00:11The police suspected that both kidnappings were carried out by the same gang.
00:15According to the National Crime Records Bureau,
00:17India reported over 1,07,000 kidnapping cases in 2022.
00:22Uttar Pradesh registered the highest number of cases with over 16,000 victims that year.
00:27Mushtaq Khan was known for his roles in films such as Welcome, Stree 2.
00:34On 15th November 2024, Khan received a call from a man named Rahul Sethi.
00:39The caller invited him to attend a show in Meerut,
00:42promising to pay him for attending the event.
00:44At the time, Khan was in Mumbai.
00:46The caller sent him Rs 25,000 as an advance payment,
00:49along with an air ticket from Mumbai to Delhi.
00:52On 20th November, when Khan reached Delhi,
00:57he was taken to Meerut.
00:59Khan was then told to switch cars.
01:11One of them put a sheet over him and asked him to keep his head down.
01:15A few hours later, they reached a house in the outskirts of the city near Bijnor.
01:23They tortured Khan, beat him and demanded a crore as ransom.
01:27They took over Rs 2 lakh from the actor and his son's account.
01:30Khan said he heard the morning azaan the next day and realised a mosque was nearby.
01:35When the kidnappers drank alcohol and passed out,
01:38he managed to escape around 4 am on 21st November.
01:42A cleric from the nearby mosque helped him contact his family
01:45and Khan made his way back home to Mumbai.
01:50The Bijnor police registered a case against unidentified individuals
01:54under Section 364A of the Bharatiya Naik Sanhita
01:57for kidnapping for ransom at the Kotwali police station in Bijnor.
02:06In Sunil Pal's case, his wife filed a missing persons complaint
02:10at the Santa Cruz police station after she was unable to contact him.
02:13She said Pal left for Haridwar to perform at an event.
02:16Pal said a car was supposed to pick him up and drop him at the event location,
02:20but he was left at a dhaba.
02:22He was then shoved into another car and driven to an unknown location, blindfolded.
02:27Pal said the kidnappers demanded Rs 20 lakh ransom.
02:30He was threatened to bear consequences if they didn't receive the money.
02:33But then, he managed to pay Rs 8 lakh with the help of his friends
02:37and he was released by the kidnappers in Meerut on 3rd December.
02:40He made his way to the Delhi airport and flew to Mumbai.
02:43Initially, a case was registered by the Mumbai police for extortion and kidnapping.
02:47The case was then transferred to Lal Kurti police station in Meerut.
02:51An audio clip was leaked on social media,
02:53raising questions about whether Pal staged his own abduction.
02:57In the audio clip, he was heard saying,
02:59I did not do anything. If the media were after me, I would have said something.
03:03I did not complain. No complaint was made.
03:06The media, along with cybercrime people, took out all this.
03:10Save yourself now and do not talk about meeting now.
03:13Pal denied the allegations and said that the kidnappers
03:16recorded the conversation to threaten him.
03:19They have all my details and are threatening to kill my family.
03:22I said whatever they told me to say.
03:25In Khan and Pal's case, Meerut and Brijnore police arrested 10 suspects,
03:28including the guard and manager of the Brijnore guest house,
03:32where the victims were allegedly held.
03:33The investigation was still underway at the time of publishing this report.