Anand, February 10 A couple from Gujarat's Anand district, on their way to the US, were kidnapped and held hostage in Azerbaijan, with the kidnappers demanding ransom for their release. However, the couple was rescued with the help of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, a local Member of Parliament said on Tuesday.
The couple, Dhruv Patel and his wife Dipika, were released and are safe, thanks to the timely efforts of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Mitesh Patel, a Member of Parliament from Anand, said in a video statement. "Two days ago, the parents of Dhruv Patel and Dipika Patel contacted me and informed me that they had been kidnapped in Azerbaijan. They said that they (family members) had received a video call in which people (the kidnappers) from Azerbaijan demanded ransom for their release," Patel said.
The couple was kidnapped while on their way to the US with the help of agents who had promised them safe passage to America through illegal means, he informed. When the couple's worried family members contacted Mitesh Patel's office for help, he made a high-level representation to the MEA and met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday when he was in New Delhi for the ongoing Parliament session. The MEA contacted the Indian Embassy in Azerbaijan, and within 24 hours, both the kidnapped persons were rescued and brought to the Embassy in Baku, the capital of the country in the South Caucasus region, Mitesh Patel said. "The kidnappers had threatened to kill the couple if they were not paid ransom. Our government worked very hard to bring them back alive. I would like to appeal to the youth of Anand not to try to go abroad through such agents, but rather work here. You will get the best opportunities here (in Gujarat)," the Lok Sabha MP said. He thanked the MEA and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the government's efforts in rescuing the couple.