Ransom call

Singh’s wife had sent a message to him around 10.22am on May 24:“Where are u? ... everyone is upset. Son is crying. Please come soon. Where are you?”

Nearly half an hour later, she received a message that read: “15 lakh... tumhara admi kidnap ho gaya hai... kal whatsapp par baat karunga” (your husband has been kidnapped... I will chat with you tomorrow on Whatsapp). Police said the mobile was later switched off.

Rohit Kumar, the cab driver who dropped Singh at the Raj Nagar Extension crossing, said that it was the first time he had dropped off Singh. “Earlier he used to go by other cabs but it was the first time he boarded my cab. He asked me to drop him at the crossing. I dropped him at the crossing around midnight . I had to drop three people and Rajiv was the first one to be dropped. Later I dropped the other two in Raj Nagar Extension housing societies. Later, I came to know that he had gone missing as I got a call from the police,” Rohit said.

The police are probing possible involvement of private taxis that offer a ride to passengers late in the night. In some previous instances, passengers have been robbed, and even killed.

“At present, we are trying to trace the missing man. The message on his wife’s number is also a matter of concern. The message was sent through the mobile of the victim which is now switched off. His family approached us yesterday and lodged an FIR. Several of our teams are working on the case,” said Vaibhav Krishna, SSP, Ghaziabad.