Indian student missing in US, Hyderabad parents receive $1,200 ransom

Abdul Mohammed’s family claimed he had not spoken to them since March 7.

Hyderabad:

The parents of an Indian student studying in the United States received a ransom call demanding nearly one lakh rupees after their son went missing. Unidentified callers told them their son had been kidnapped and threatened to sell his kidney.

Abdul Mohammed, 25, from Hyderabad, left home in May last year to pursue a master’s degree in information technology at the University of Cleveland, Ohio.

His family claimed he had not spoken to them since March 7.

Abdul’s father, Mohammed Salim, received a call last week from an unknown number informing him that his son had been kidnapped by drug dealers in Cleveland.

The unidentified caller then demanded $1,200 for his release but did not specify how the payment would be made. He also threatened to sell the student’s kidney to the Mafia if they refused to pay, his family said.

His parents then notified his relatives in the United States, who filed a missing person complaint with Cleveland police. Police said in the watch order that Muhammad was wearing a white T-shirt, a red jacket and blue jeans.

The family also wrote to the Chicago Indian Commission in an effort to find him.

The kidnapping was reported a week after another Indian student was found dead in the United States, the ninth such incident in less than three months. The body of Abhijeeth Paruchuru, a 20-year-old Boston engineering student, was found in a car in the forest. But the Indian Consulate General in New York said preliminary investigations ruled out anything suspicious.