An Ola cab driver who allegedly kidnapped a doctor and tried to make the cab company pay 5 crores in ransom has been arrested by Delhi Police. The police said the doctor, kidnapped on July 6 from his east Delhi hospital, was rescued from the gang on Wednesday after a gunfight in Meerut, 83 km from national capital Delhi.

Teams of Delhi Police and Uttar Pradesh's Special Task Force had earlier tracked down the four members of the gang at Haridwar and Meerut over the last few days. But they had managed to slip away. On Wednesday, the police traced them again, this time to a village in Meerut. The four kidnappers including the cab driver were arrested after a shootout that injured one of them.

A native of Telangana, Dr Shrikant Goud had booked an Ola cab on July 6 evening to return to his home in south Delhi from a private hospital in east Delhi where he works. But instead of driving him home, the driver took him to Dadri near Noida where other members of the gang joined them.
The kidnappers made the first ransom call to Ola's call centre using his phone and demanded 5 crores. Another ransom call was also made to the private hospital. As proof, they also made a video of him on the phone camera and sent the clips to the doctor's family and private cab operator.

During the next 13 days, the police said the gang did not use their mobile phones but Dr Goud's phone to avoid identification. The precaution wasn't of much help.

On Sunday, a police team was just metres away from the kidnappers travelling in a vehicle in Meerut but they were able to evade arrest. The police later tracked them to Haridwar but again lost the trail.

This evening, the police received information that the doctor was being held at an under-construction building in Meerut. The police team surrounded the locality where the doctor was being held captive and rescued him after a brief gunfight.

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