Vasai housewife says she wanted to escape in-laws’ torture and start a new life

Mangalore Today News Network

Feb 18, 2016: The Vasai housewife who staged her own kidnapping told the police that she had decided to start a new life with her boyfriend as her husband and in-laws would torture her.

The woman, Shilpa Berma (40) and her boyfriend, Amresh Kumar (27), were tracked down in Ludhiana on Tuesday, about a fortnight after they staged the kidnapping at gunpoint.

The police arrested Amresh and might also arrest Shilpa upon determining her role in the plan.

mid-day had reported how the fake abduction on February 3 had alarmed local residents and cops. Upon enquiring into Shilpa’s past, the police discovered that she had been involved in another kidnapping case in 2013 as well. The police were told that she was kidnapped from Kanpur railway station, but the cops had found her in the same area four days later. Her kidnapper at that time also was Amresh. He hails from Agra and had worked as a pastry chef in Delhi and various other cities. The two had met through a social networking site in 2013.

“On the day of the kidnapping, Shilpa and her friend Nupur Srivastava were walking on the street near Dongarpada, Vasai east. Amresh pushed Srivastava away and put Shilpa in an auto. Shilpa and Amresh went a little distance and then caught another auto to the highway, from where they caught a bus and went to Jaipur, Udaipur and then Ludhiana,” said Additional SP Shrikrishna Kokate.

Based on the first kidnapping case, the cops zeroed in on the places where Amresh worked earlier. Through his call detail records, they learnt that Amresh was in Ludhiana. With the help of local cops, the investigators tracked down the couple in Akash Nagar. Shilpa later told the cops that she had left of her own will as she was being treated badly by her husband’s family. The police will now determine whether she was in on the kidnapping plan, and accordingly, may arrest her as well.