Indian Suspected Kidnapper Tried to Blame Nigerian Nationals for Abduction of Three Students

An Indian man, Sumit Sood, suspected of kidnapping three Class VI students of Bishop Cotton School (BCS) in Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh, allegedly attempted to shift blame for the crime onto Nigerian nationals.

The students were granted ‘Outing Passes’ on August 9, 2025, for the Raksha Bandhan festival when Sood, a 43-year-old former BCS student, allegedly abducted them.

According to The Indian Express, Sood contacted the victims’ parents, claiming he had been coerced by Nigerian citizens to demand ransom.

He reportedly instructed that the ransom be paid in Bitcoin and warned against involving authorities, saying the so-called “Nigerian gang” would harm him and the children.

“The students are still in shock. Sood told the parents that a Nigerian gang was behind the kidnapping, and if they informed anyone, the gang would kill their children. He pretended that he had been threatened into making the ransom calls,” Shimla Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Gandhi told the publication on Tuesday.

Police arrested Sood at his home in Kokunala village near Kotkhai, recovering the three students and impounding a car with a fake registration plate. Authorities also seized a licensed firearm and sharp-edged weapons, including a machete, from the suspect’s residence.

Investigators said an examination of Sood’s mobile phone revealed he had visited more than three dozen websites, local news channels, and the BCS website to monitor whether the abduction had been reported. When he learned around 8 p.m. on Saturday that news of the missing students had surfaced, he allegedly planned to move them from Kokunala to Chandigarh.

On Wednesday, August 13, 2025, a Shimla court remanded Sood to judicial custody, despite police requesting extended detention for further questioning.

The Judicial Magistrate First Class, Jyoti Bhagchandani, also scheduled a hearing for August 18 after Sood consented to provide voice samples. Police had sought court approval to obtain the samples to match recordings of the ransom calls made to the parents of two of the kidnapped students.

The three rescued children, who live in the BCS hostel, are from Kullu in Himachal Pradesh, Karnal in Haryana, and Mohali in Punjab. One of them is a relative of Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains, who visited Shimla with family members following the incident.

In response, the BCS management announced that students will now only be allowed off campus under the supervision of adults or school staff.