A 20-year-old man in India cooked up a fake kidnapping story to extract ransom from his parents and use the money to repay his debts from online games, police said.

The bizarre incident happened in Ujjain, a city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, and came to light after the family of Nitesh Anokhilal came to the cops to file a complaint that he was kidnapped for ransom.

Anokhilal's parents said they got a message and a call from an international number on Whatsapp, claiming that their son has been kidnapped. They also got a video message that showed Anokhilal with his hands and feet tied while someone demanded $600 (INR 50,000) to release him, India Today reported Saturday.

The parents were reportedly told that Anokhilal would be found near a railway station after they transfer the money. The family transferred the money and approached the cops, who located Anokhilal at the railway station, 19 miles away from their hometown.

Meanwhile, Anokhilal, who appeared to be in a half-naked state, claimed that he was kidnapped, tortured, and thrown off a moving train.

However, while interacting with Anokhilal, cops noticed inconsistencies in his statement and questioned him. During interrogation, he confessed to faking abduction to get money to repay his debts.

"He admitted that he lost money on the gaming app and to recover it, he got himself kidnapped and asked for money from his family in the form of ransom," an investigating officer, Vinod Meena, said.

Further investigation revealed that Anokhilal himself made the video message that was sent to the parents, and the money received as ransom was transferred to other accounts to confuse the probe, The Times of India reported.

The investigators believe that one of Anokhilal's friends kidnapped him as per his direction. "The man told this friend that one of his friends met with an accident and that he needed money urgently for his treatment. Since he could not ask for money from his family, the man asked his friend to kidnap him so that his family agreed to pay the money and he could save the friend who met with an accident," the police said.

The investigators said they would be taking action against Anokhilal.

Representational image (police car)
Representational image (Source: Pixabay / diegoparra)