Chandigarh, February 10
Rattled by a series of kidnappings and disappearances under mysterious circumstances during the past few weeks, the Punjab Police claims to have solved two of the three cases that have been in the headlines during the fortnight.

“We are working on a number of theories to solve the case of Prabir Singh, alias Guddu, who was kidnapped from Amritsar on February 7. The case appears to be the handiwork of professionals, one of whom was allegedly sporting the uniform of a policeman,” says the Director-General of Punjab Police, Mr S.S. Virk.

“Kidnapping of four-year-old Amandeep Singh of Goraya has been solved. The main suspect, Arun Kumar, has already been arrested after the recovery of the body of the victim. Two more suspects have been rounded up in the case,” reveals Mr Virk maintaining that the police was almost on the verge of recovering 13-year-old Kanwalpreet Singh of Kapurthala who has been missing since January 29.

“But his (Kanwalpreet Singh) case appears to be of wishful disappearance. We have been following the movements of this boy who had been lavishly using the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card of his father. He withdrew Rs 500 from the HDFC ATM in Guwahati at 2.35 p.m. today,” says Mr Virk, holding that a special police party is being sent to Guwahati to bring back this boy.

The boy, son of a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police, had actually gone missing on January 29 but a complaint with the police was lodged on February 6. The father of the boy had been alleging that his son has been kidnapped and it was the handiwork of certain militants.

“But the kidnapping of Prabir Singh is a serious case. We have been narrowing down on certain suspects and releasing the pen portrait of one of them. Eyewitnesses say that one of the kidnappers was in police uniform and carrying a carbine. It was he who had come out after the car used in the crime got stuck in a traffic jam,” said Mr Virk.

If one looks at the crime figures of Punjab for the past five years, claims the DGP, the number of cases of kidnapping and abductions have been in the range of 500 a year. In 2002, there were 575 cases of kidnappings while in 2004, there were 513 kidnappings. This year, 40 cases have been registered so far.

“In Punjab most of the kidnapping cases ultimately turn out to be cases of wishful disappearance or because of family feuds. Some cases also pertain to disputed financial or property transactions. We have been solving most of these cases,” adds Mr Virk.

There have been a couple of cases where kidnappings were for ransom or with criminal intent as has been the case with four-year-old Amanpreet Singh. In another case reported from Jalandhar last year, the victims were done to death by the accused who had been nursing a grouse against the parents of the victim.

Last year the police had tracked down a baby killer to solve several cases of missing children in the Doaba region.

In Nabha, a case of kidnapping was registered a few days ago almost eight months after 45-year-old Avtar Kaur Jawandha disappeared from her home. Interestingly, in this incident, all three sisters have been mentioned in the First Information Report — the oldest as missing, the second as suspect and the youngest as complainant. The missing person had worked in the Secretariat of former Punjab Chief Minister, Harcharan Singh Brar, as well as of Mr Surjit Singh Barnala.