U.S. citizen stages her own abduction, held

Accused, 27, wanted to extort money from her parents; boyfriend who posed as kidnapper also nabbed

A 27-year-old U.S. national staged her abduction after facing a financial crunch in an attempt to extort money from her parents, the Delhi police said on Sunday. The woman, along with her boyfriend, a Nigerian national, were arrested in the Capital on July 10. Both had overstayed their visa.

The accused, identified as Chloe Mclaughlin, arrived in Delhi on May 3. On July 7, she informed her mother that she was in an “unsafe environment” and was allegedly being assaulted by an unidentified man.

Her mother tried to gather more details through a video call. But just as Ms. Mclaughlin was talking to her mother, an unknown person entered her room.

Ms. Mclaughlin, feigning a threat from this person, who actually was her boyfriend — 31-year-old Nigerian national Okoroafor Chibuike Okoro — told her mother that she couldn’t disclose her current location.

Subsequently, the accused’s parents got in touch with the U.S. Embassy, which forwarded a complaint to the Delhi police’s New Delhi district. Ms. Mclaughlin’s parents feared that she might have been kidnapped. A case of kidnapping under the relevant IPC sections was lodged at the Chanakyapuri police station.

The police team used technical intelligence and, in order to ascertain the most recent whereabouts of the accused, sought assistance from Yahoo.com for providing the IP address used by her to send an e-mail to American Citizen Services regarding her immigration document work on July 9.

“Further, the Bureau of Immigration was requested to provide the immigration form of the girl to ascertain her whereabouts. The address she had shared with the immigration authorities was in Greater Noida,” a senior police officer said.