Dynamics of Kidnapping for Ransom

by Late Anil Kumar Singh,
IPS (Retired),

(Article made available to PatnaDaily.Com by Siddharth Kumar, the son of late IPS officer Anil Kumar Singh)

Sept. 13, 2007

Kidnappings in Bihar are again on the rise. I would like to share with readers a paper on the subject written by my late father (Late Anil Kumar Singh, IPS (Retd.) who was shot and killed while preventing a train dacoity on 4th June, 2006 onboard Patna Kurla Superfast Express in Patna).

This paper discusses in detail on how to safeguard self and family against this crime as well also serves as a guide for the victims of kidnapping.

I am sure this will prove to be very useful for all of us.

Best regards,
Siddharth Kumar

***********************************************************************

If putting Bihar on the crime map of India as well as earning for it sobriquet of a benighted state and devil’s own chosen place can be said to be the handiwork of one form of crime, it is kidnapping for ransom.

Those who live outside Bihar would make queries a thousand times before getting into train for Bihar. Recently a lady acquaintance of mine, who had to go to Munger, made a niece of mine talk to me umpteen number of times from Canada, giving details of her itinerary to Bihar, so that I make arrangements for her to be received and reached to Munger safe and sound. She was given to understand that no sooner you step into Bihar you will be kidnapped.

I received her at Patna junction. When she saw me, I appeared to her as some angel sent by the Almighty Himself. Her co-passengers had failed to allay her fears. This is not the opinion of a person coming from outside India but very much that of people from other states of this country. Had it not been so, one of the Directors of the National Police Academy looked at me as if I was a man from Mars when, in the course of introduction, I informed him that I was from Bihar and posted in Begusarai. Pat he asked me as to how I lived in a place like that because when he had to come to Begusarai, first time, during his posting with IOC, he was wished all the luck by his other colleagues and was advised to take all the precautions, including changing of his room every night if he had to stay for more than one night. This might sound apocryphal but take it from me; every word of it was true. Maybe the fear was a little exaggerated, but if the print and the audio-visual media along with the figures maintained by the Police Department have any credibility, the menacing proportion this form of crime has attained in this state should make every citizen think seriously about it.

So it is imperative that every one of us should try to understand the dynamics of the crime of kidnapping for ransom and if possible take all precautions against it. It can not be gainsaid that the best precaution can be taken against the targets of this form of crime. The onus of prevention of crime is on police but let us all be in no doubt that police have their limitations. Yes, investigating the crime, once it takes place, is the compelling duty of police and they do whatever they can, at times with phenomenal success.

Once the crime takes place the headlines of the media start screeching. Bandhs are announced by the parties in opposition. Resignation of the government in power is demanded and in the process, the public properties and police department have to face the ire of the people. National losses are caused and people on the streets suffer. The faith of people in the government is shaken. It seems the ‘Social Contract’ has been violated.

Who are the targets of this form of crime? It may appear trite to say that not every person is the target of this crime. It is, in most of the cases, the people who have either money or have reputation to have money are the potential targets of this crime. Kidnapping of other forms can be for other purposes but kidnapping for ransom is invariably for money and a lot of it. So those who fall in the category of moneyed people should always keep in mind that they can be the victims of this crime. They have to be on guard and take precautions against it.

Kidnappers have a wide variety of choice available before them. So why a particular man should be chosen as a target? He is favoured because he fits into the criteria of ‘targets’ set by the kidnappers. What are the criteria? First is, obviously, money. Kidnappers need money. Secondly, he has to be valuable to some one who can go to any extent to secure his release. Thirdly, they have to be accessible because the kidnappers also value their security and choose the path of least resistance.

Once a target is selected, they put him under an unobtrusive watch. His every movement is put under surveillance. His strength and weakness analysis is entered into. The wherewithal are arranged including get away vehicle(s) and a safe house. Dry runs are carried. Once it has been meticulously planned, kidnapping is attempted with almost a hundred percent success rate. The police have normally no inkling about it. It steps in only after it has taken place. So, the perpetrators have a definite march over the police. Trial and error method is resorted to which, at times, succeed but more often it is left to the victim’s family and well-wishers to secure the release of the victim.

The profile of the targets keeps on changing depending on the paying capacity of them. Previously, the businessmen were the victims of this form of crime in Bihar. The list of the victims of this crime in Bihar will clearly bear this out. Once they have started taking precautions, including payment of protection money to the gangs involved in this form of crime, the kidnappers turn towards other segments of the population like those government servants who had the reputation of having money like engineers, civil servants at the grass root levels and government contractors. The kidnapping of the Registrar of Muzaffarpur in Vaishali, coupled with the murders of a few of his co-travelling colleagues, is a very recent example of a Govt. servant who was kidnapped because he had plenty of money.

The lack of development activities in truncated Bihar left this segment without much money. So they have turned towards other professionals. They can ill afford to target lawyers. So the only choice is a doctor with a long queue of patients at his clinic, a swanky car and a palatial building. This explains the rampant kidnapping of doctors in Bihar recently. A very large number of doctors in Bihar have been the victims of this crime. But they constitute a well knit pressure group. Once a doctor is kidnapped, the group raises so much of dust and fume that the governmental agencies start choking and the ailing populace of the state starts suffering, bringing, in turn, further pressure on the government. The image of the state receives further battering. Target group may shift again to those who are in big money ways, be it the government servants who have the capacity to squeeze oil from the proverbial sand (which alone this State has been left with after Jharkhand parted its ways from Bihar) or retiring servants who have received fat settlement money from the employers or the NRIs who are driven by the jingoistic spirit to do something for their poor State.

What should be done to prevent this form of crime? To leave it to the police to do every thing will not do.

Here are some suggestions which, I must say, are not exhaustive but go a long way in saving the target(s) from this menace.

1. Wealth is not to be flaunted because it attracts the kidnappers towards the possessors thereof. It must be borne in mind that wealth like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. So if you have wealth, do not be conspicuous either in its consumption or in the display of it.

2. Wealth cannot be camouflaged for long. So, active precautions have to be taken because nobody is in a better position to take precautions than the persons concerned. Threat perception analysis has to be entered in to. Personal security has to be taken very seriously. Advice may be taken from experienced people, even from consultants.

3. Lifestyle should be changed so that there is no predictable pattern. It should be as unpredictable as is possible. The case studies have proved that the kidnappers’ task has been made easier by the predictability of movements of the targets.

4. The places of stay and work places should be guarded by dependable persons. Here again, the security guards and domestic helps should be thoroughly screened so that they are completely dependable and trustworthy. More often than not, information about the victims flow from such persons to the kidnappers.

5. The targets should not be allured to unsafe places. Wealth gives power or a sense thereof. And power is a great aphrodisiac. Case studies have proven that kidnappers struck while the victims were out in search of the pleasure of flesh and cups.

6. The environment should be very closely watched. Any suspicious movement should cause an alarm and should be investigated to the satisfaction of the victims. In fact, a good knowledge should be acquired about the areas of the residence, visits and work places. It will be better to know about the people around such areas and strangers should be viewed with a great amount of circumspection.

7. Counter ambush tactics should be learnt, even if it amounts to taking some extra pains because it may save money and life of the targets.

8. Other members of family should be made to take the same set of precautions which the targets have decided for themselves.

9. Police alerts should be taken very seriously and security precautions should be reviewed afresh to plug in any loophole that may have appeared over a period of time.

10. Print and audiovisual media, these days, are very graphic in details about the incidents of this type of crime. It will be wise to keep a tab on them, especially the modus operandi of them. This will help in analyzing the threat perception of the prospective targets. The kidnappers are always in the lookout of softer targets. School-going children and females of affluent class form a very vulnerable group. Fortunately for the affluent people of this state, kidnappers have spared the female folks but children have been targeted. Here also targets are chosen after a lot of planning by the kidnappers. So adequate precautions have to be taken by parents and guardians of the children. Children have to be briefed and re-briefed that they should not allow strangers in the house if they are alone, never accept any thing from strangers, never leave the house without giving their destination to the parents and never play in secluded places or pass through lonely lanes. They should always travel in groups, learn the procedure of calling up police, raise alarm when accosted by strangers, if asked about name and address, they should never give correct ones. The schools should in no case allow the children to leave schools without confirmation from the guardians.

Kidnapping programme falls in to following stages:

A. Pre-kidnapping - Once a target has been selected, this lasts as long as planning for kidnapping is not complete;

B. The actual kidnapping;

C. Whisking away the kidnapped to a safe place for confinement;

D. The captivity which lasts as long as the victim is not released;

E. The negotiation of ransom;

F. The payment of ransom and

G. The actual release of the victim.

During all the stages of kidnapping, certain actions are imperative on the part of the victim too. So far the pre-kidnapping stage is concerned the targets have to take all the precautions suggested above. In spite of all precautions, a victim may still fall prey to the kidnappers. So if the victim is cornered by the criminals, he should, for a very brief moment, try to ward them off by some evasive tactics. Since kidnappers are in tearing hurry, they may abandon the attempt altogether But this has to be resorted to for a very-very brief moment because the kidnappers are also very nervous at the time of kidnapping and they would not hesitate to resort to killing as it is their lives versus the life of the victim and they definitely value their lives more. Hence, without being foolhardy, some evasive practices can be adopted but very briefly. It will all depend on the situation obtaining then. If the situation does not permit evasive actions, it is better to surrender to the mercy of the criminals.

The greatest enemy of the victim, once they have secured the victim, would not be the kidnappers but his attitude. Fear and despair has to be controlled. Whimper may further provoke the kidnappers. So a certain modicum of dignity has to be maintained. If it is, then chances are that the victim would be treated with certain amount of respect. The victim is usually transported by the kidnappers to a pre-fixed place(s) of hiding for safe up keep. So it is wise to keep the balance of mind. It may help the victim to have an idea about time taken, distance covered, the condition of the road etc. while being taken to the place(s) of confinement. All these may be of great value to the police investigating the case. A few days’ time is taken by the criminals to get in touch with the kin of the victim to make demand for the ransom and to settle the amount. The period of captivity may be of quite a few days. The victim should eat whatever is offered to him. This will give him strength and may help to keep his faculties intact. He should devise some means to occupy his time with. Exercise, sleep and thinking about the near and dear ones may fill the time. Remembering the Lord will console a lot. ‘In a fox hole no body is atheist’. Everything about the environment howsoever small it might be, should be taken mental note of.

This is what led to the detection of the case of kidnapping of Charles F. Urschel in America (Read about Urschel case in detail on this FBI web site). He kept his wits around when he was kept in confinement for 8 days. He noted that an aeroplane flew over head at 9.45 in morning and again at 4.45 in the after noon except on Sunday when there was a heavy storm. A ransom of $ 200,000 was paid. He also remembered that he was driven for 12 hrs. to the place of his confinement. Edger Hoover was himself monitoring the investigation. With these two information the culprits were captured. Without falling prey to the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ an attempt to learn everything about the culprits should be made. It may again be of great help to the police.

Then comes the stage of settlement of the ransom amount as well as payment of the same to the kidnappers. In European countries there has emerged a class of professionals who undertake negotiation of the amount of ransom on behalf of the family of the victim. They charge certain percentage of the reduced amount as their consultancy fee after the release of the victim is ensured. This concept is still to take root in our country. Here this is done either by the well wishers of the family of the victims or ‘Dalals’ of many hues, who are themselves nothing but criminals.

Once a sum as been settled as ransom amount, the payment thereof also requires planning. There is a concept of ‘Bait Money’. It has to be mixed up with the ransom amount. This may help police to trace the culprits. This is what happened in a classical case of kidnapping in America where but for the bait money the case could have gone undetected for ever. Ransom was paid and culprits were not traced but after quite some time, in a fisticuff in a bar, a man was detained and out of the personal search some of the ‘bait money’ was recovered and by a backwards- integrated- investigation the culprits were located.

Once ransom has been paid, there comes the tense moment of the release of the victim. The victim here also has to take certain precautions. No fight has to be taken with the kidnappers. They have received their money so the life of the victim is not of much value to them. Any foolhardy act can cost the life of the victim. No recognition has to be betrayed or the victim is done for. Self respect and dignity should be kept intact by the victim. The payment of ransom is the safest way out of the clutches of the kidnappers.

This may shock many of us as naked truth does most of the times. Kidnapping for ransom is not the crime of this state or India only. In fact, this is the crime of the century. Along with the global terrorism and economic offences, it constitutes the triumvirate of the modern days’ crimes. Kidnapping for ransom is a very potent tool in the hands of the terrorists and extremists too and our State and the country had had the experience of it in an ample measure.

In kidnapping by terrorists/extremists, the ransom takes the form of various concessions apart from money. It combines the ingredients of economic offence too. The lot of police is not an enviable one so far this form of crime is concerned. As it is, they are in distinct disadvantage. They have no inkling of this crime unless it is reported to them which, again, is done with a lot of reluctance on the part of the family members. They have always a feeling, and rightly so, that if police comes into action in full go, the kidnappers may kill the victim. So, many a time there are requests from the family members to go slow about the investigation and at time there is complete apathy on their part if negotiation is on for the payment of ransom. And once release has been secured by them after paying the ransom, the victims hardly comes to police to render help in investigation. So, the legal status of the persons arrested in the crime remains those of suspects. Convictions are rare and few and far between. The real culprits go Scot free. In fact the real investigation of the crime has to start only after the release of the victim has been secured but it is seldom done primarily because of the non-cooperation of the victims and their family members and lack of belief of the people in the police. It is also due to the fact that the pains involved in working out the clues are seldom taken by the police.

Proactive measures by police? Probably a few. This is the prime reason why this crime keeps on repeating itself with the frequency we are witnessing these days to the utter discomfiture of the police and the society both. So if a check is to be put on this crime, both the targets and the law enforcement agencies have their roles to play. They have to work in tandem. If they fail, the situation will be what it is now.

(Links added by PatnaDaily.Com)