Hyderabad woman held for kidnapping TV anchor in attempt to marry him

Hyderabad: A businesswoman who allegedly stalked and later kidnapped a TV music channel anchor, with the intention of marrying him, was apprehended here, police said on Friday.

The woman had allegedly installed a tracking device on the TV anchor's car to stalk him and monitor his movements, they said.

The 31-year-old woman, who runs a digital marketing business, saw the photos of the TV anchor on a matrimony website and started chatting with the account holder two years ago. However, she later realised that the account holder was using the TV anchor's photo as the profile picture on the matrimony site, instead of his own photo.

She then searched through the profile and found the phone number, which belonged to the anchor.

She contacted the anchor through an instant messaging app but was informed by him that some unknown person had used his photo and created a fake account on the matrimony site, and that he had lodged a complaint in the Cyber Crime police station about it.

However, the woman continued to send messages to the anchor.

He then blocked her number, police said.

The woman, who was determined to marry the anchor, planned to kidnap him, thinking she could get things sorted out, police said.

Accordingly, she hired four persons to kidnap the anchor and also installed a tracking device on the victim's car to watch his movements.

On February 11, the four hired men kidnapped the victim and took him to the office of the woman and beat him up badly, police said.

Fearing for his life, the TV anchor agreed to respond to the woman's calls and only then was he let off, police said.

He later lodged a complaint with Uppal police station, and a case was registered under 363 (kidnapping), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

During the course of the investigation, the police apprehended the accused woman along with the four men she hired to carry out the abduction.

Further investigation is on.