Shubham Ranjan and Priyank Sharma. (Express photo)
The probe into the kidnapping-for-ransom case involving UPSC coaching centre director Shubra Ranjan has revealed that the main accused, Priyanka Sharma, hatched the plot to recover losses after his own coaching centre shut down during Covid, police said.
Sharma, son of a retired BHEL official, spent several years in Delhi preparing for the UPSC civil services exam. He appeared three times between 2017 and 2019 but did not clear it. After his third attempt, he opened his own coaching centre.
He had studied at a well-known IAS academy in Delhi and built relationships there, which he later used to negotiate a franchise arrangement with the academy’s director.
“When he made contact with the victim, he made a business proposition. Sharma told Shubra that she did not have a coaching centre in Bhopal, and that a business deal with him would provide her with the infrastructure and students to set the businesses rolling with low investment,” said a senior crime branch officer.
Police said Sharma allegedly concocted the kidnapping plot to recover losses after his centre shut during the Covid lockdown.
During questioning, Sharma allegedly told police the closure wiped out a significant investment. Classes stopped, revenue dried up, and the centre never reopened.
According to the Crime Branch, Sharma spent about two months planning the kidnapping. He allegedly first roped in three trusted associates — Vicky, Deepak and Rohit — and then recruited others from Datia, Rewa and nearby areas. Each was allegedly assigned a specific role, and Sharma held “repeated rehearsals to make sure each of them understood what they were supposed to do and when”. Police said he also “wrote out scripts for the participants, laying out what would be said and done inside the flat once the victims arrived.”
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A flat in Bhopal’s Bagsewaniya area was allegedly rented two days before the crime with proper documentation to avoid suspicion. Sharma also arranged a Sundarkand recital there on the evening of April 29, “so that the sound from inside the flat would be masked and nothing the victims said or did would be heard outside”, the police said.
A key part of the kidnapping involved an accomplice, Deepak Bhagat, who was instructed to lie still and appear dead when the victims arrived. He was placed inside a locked box.
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