"Gifts from the Gulf" continued...

Aftab and Akhtar happened to meet again in a terror training camp some years later. Incidentally, Akhtar was also present in the truck in Santalpur on the night between October 26 & 27, 2001—the starting point of this story—when CBI boys intercepted it.

Akhtar had evaded arrest by the CBI until 2012 before surrendering in court.Aftab came out on bail in 1998 in the Ashok Vihar extortion case wherein his compatriot Dinesh Thakur had been gunned down. He, however, had to keep attending court and was in dire need of money to meet his legal expenses. It was during one such visit to the court that he met Harpreet Singh, a Delhi-based criminal. Happy, a specialist kidnapper, had already carved a niche for himself in the world of crime. He, like Aftab, was also in need of money and when Aftab proposed to Happy that together they should plan to kidnap a wealthy person to make quick money, he jumped at the offer.

Happy knew Sanjay Khanna aka Chunkey of Babloo Srivastava Gang, notorious for
kidnappings for ransom in urban settings. He
got in touch with Chunky and asked him to send seed-money to fund kidnappings that he was
planning with his gang. Sanjay sent Rs. 7 lacs, in two installments, with which two second hand
cars—a Maruti 800 and a Maruti van—were bought. Happy roped in his trusted associates to
augment the gang and was ready for action.

Anand Agrawal, a coal merchant from Varanasi, was targeted for the first kidnapping as Aftab knew from his past local knowledge that Aggarwal was loaded with cash. Two houses were taken on rent: one at Ashok Vihar in Varanasi and another at Hyderabad Colony in Lucknow; both to be used as safe-houses for keeping prospective abductees. On August 5, 1999, Aftab Ansari, Happy and others impersonated as CBI officers and abducted Anand Agrawal from his house in Varanasi. The ransom collected was Rs. 3 crores negotiated by Aftab’s and Happy’s compatriots—Raju Anadkat and Chunkey—both then in Dubai.

To be continued...