Kidpper demands 'share' of award money from Gunjan, caught

A Correspondent

Jorhat, Feb 3: The saga of Gunjan Sharma, the 14-year-old girl whose audacious escape from the clutches of kidppers earned her laurels in the State and country, has just got a little more sensatiol, or rather hilarious.

The mastermind behind the kidpping, who had escaped from custody, has now returned to demand half the cash award Gunjan received for her bravery, claiming that she would never have got it but for him.

This came to light after a team of Jorhat police led by sub inspector Dipankar Bora on Tuesday night maged to apprehend the dreaded crimil - Biman Bora - in Jorhat. A 7.62 pistol and a magazine with ten live rounds were recovered from him. Biman was bbed after a passenger train from Dimapur to Sibsagar stopped at the Jorhat railway station. The police laid a trap after a tip off about his possible movement via train from Dimapur to zira after procuring a pistol from the illegal Dimapur arms market.

On December 4, 2013, Biman had hijacked a school van carrying 11 children, including Gunjan, at Simaluguri along the Assam-galand border in Assam's Sivasagar district. When the kidpper wanted to take someone hostage after abandoning the van near a tea estate, Gunjan offered herself as hostage and saved the 10 other students.

She was recovered by police the next day from near a tea estate. Subsequently, the police also arrested Biman and an accomplice.

Biman had kidpped the children to facilitate his escape to neighboring galand.

For her act of bravery, Gunjan received both State and tiol bravery awards.

Police today said Biman had purchased the pistol from Dimapur and was on a mission to kill all those persons who had helped the police to b him earlier. "Funnily, he had also served an extortion demand on Gunjan's family. He asked Gunjan Sharma's family to pay him half of the money she earned through various bravery awards and cash rewards. According to Biman, Gunjan would not have shot to fame had he not taken her as hostage and later released her without harm," a police source quoted Biman as confessing.

Biman had fled from custody on January 11 this year while he was being taken to a court in Bokakhat under Golaghat district.

Police said Biman is a notorious crimil and has cases lodged against him in many police stations of Upper Assam.