ZIRAKPUR - The Punjab Police Thursday arrested three men who abducted a young couple on the Chandigarh-Delhi highway early morning. While the husband was freed by the kidnappers, the wife was held for ransom by them.

‘We got to know the exact position of the accused in Kauli village of Patiala district by tracing their mobile phones,’ Mohali district police chief Jatinder Singh Aulakh told IANS. Patiala is around 70 km from state capital Chandigarh.

‘On seeing the police, the accused fired at us but our officials easily overpowered them. We have been able to rescue the girl safely and also recovered the car from them,’ he said.

Early Thursday Shekhar and Shelija were driving on the National Highway 21 going to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. They were coming from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh.

Shekhar stopped the car near Zirakpur flyover to drink water when three men pretending to be police officials approached them.

‘They told us that they were Punjab Police officials in civil dress and wanted to verify our details. However, they took out a gun and pointed it at my head and two of them entered our car while the third followed us on his motorcycle,’ Shekhar told IANS.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dera Bassi) J.S. Khera said: ‘They took the car towards Chatt village and demanded Rs.20,000 from the couple.’

The Chatt village is around five km from here.

‘But the couple did not have that much cash with them so the accused dropped Shekhar at the village and drove the car towards Patiala taking Shelija with them.’

Shekhar called his wife’s phone and the kidnappers told him that they will call back in 30 minutes to tell him where to deliver the ransom money. The kidnappers called back and this time raised their ransom to Rs.100,000.

The police traced the mobile calls and apprehended the kidnappers within hours of the incident.