Hyderabad: GST officers allegedly assaulted and kidnapped during raid, rescued by police

Hyderabad: Two GST officers, who were conducting a raid on a scrap unit here as part of a special drive, were allegedly assaulted and kidnapped by a group of traders who demanded ransom for the duo's release, but were later rescued by police on Wednesday, an official said.

The accused were taken into police custody. The accused, a scrap trader along with three merchants, all hailing from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh and running their store in an area under Saroornagar police station limits in the city allegedly assaulted the two GST officers, who were in plain clothes during the drive.

The two GST officers (from Intelligence wing), as part of a special drive to identify fake GST registrations, came to raid the store but the traders allegedly assaulted them after taking their ID cards and the search warrant, a senior police official said. The two officers were then kidnapped and being taken to some place by the accused in a vehicle.

The accused also demanded ransom of Rs 5 lakh for the officers' release, the official said. The car driver of these officials escaped and contacted their senior officials, who alerted the Rachakonda police about the incident. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke to the state police and expressed her concern. Based on CCTV footage, police teams intercepted the vehicle at a check post about 4 kilometres from the place of the offence and rescued the two officers, the official said, adding the four traders were taken into custody. A case was registered on charges of kidnapping, extortion, for obstructing public servant from discharging duty under relevant Indian Penal Code sections, the official added. Further investigations were on.