Indian Kidnap Suspect Blames Imaginary Nigerian Gang for Students’ Abduction

An Indian man accused of kidnapping three students from Bishop Cotton School in Shimla initially attempted to frame a fictitious Nigerian gang for the crime, police have revealed.

The 43-year-old suspect, Sumit Sood, allegedly abducted the students and then made ransom calls to their parents using a virtual number. According to The Indian Express, Sood claimed he was being coerced by “a gang of Nigerian citizens” to demand payment in Bitcoin, warning parents not to alert the school management or authorities.

Shimla Superintendent of Police, Sanjeev Gandhi, said the suspect used the TextMe app for the calls and had scoured more than 30 news sites, local channels, and the school’s website to monitor media coverage. When reports of the abduction emerged on Saturday evening, Sood allegedly planned to move the victims from his remote Kokunala village home to Chandigarh.

Police say Sood kept the students in his three-storey house, stolen his father’s licensed pistol before the crime, and avoided CCTV cameras by using a less-travelled road. He also reportedly waited over four hours in his car near the school, using a fake number plate and even urinating into a bottle to avoid leaving his vehicle.

During a crime scene reconstruction, Sood pointed out where he blindfolded the victims, changed his car’s registration plate, and the routes he took to his residence. He was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.

In a separate case last month, a Nigerian national, Frank Nandi, alleged in court that Indian anti-narcotics officers planted drugs on him. Police, however, maintained that 200 grams of cocaine were recovered from his bag following a tip-off in Mumbai.