A 21-year-old woman who her parents feared had been abducted for a ransom of Rs 30 lakh faked her kidnapping to raise money to travel abroad, police here said on Wednesday.

Kavya, who is yet to be traced, spent only three days last year in Kota, where her mother had left her to stay in a hostel and take coaching classes.

The woman had been sending pictures and messages to dupe her parents into believing that she was still in Rajasthan’s coaching hub, according to Kota police.

Recently, her parents who stay in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri were shocked after receiving a ransom demand of Rs 30 lakh and pictures of their daughter with her hands and feet tied.

On March 18, her father Raghuveer Dhakad lodged a complaint with Kota police alleging that Kavya had been abducted.

The police immediately swung into action and they found that Kavya was last reported to be in Indore on Tuesday evening, Kota Superintendent of Police Amrita Duhan said in a press conference here this evening.

During investigation, it was revealed that the woman stayed in a hostel in Kota for three days and after her mother left her she moved to Indore and had been living there ever since with her two male friends, she said.

The woman kept the parents in the dark by sending them messages of class tests and her presence in classes in the name of the coaching institute, the SP said.

According to one of her friends who is cooperating with the police, Kavya and the other friend, who is believed to be with her right now, wanted to flee abroad but did not had enough money so they staged the abduction in order to seek ransom, she said.

The woman got the pictures of her staged kidnapping in a common friend's room, SP Duhan said.

Circle Inspector Satish Chaudhary said the woman and they duo has kept their mobiles switched off. They studied in Indore and were planning to leave for abroad for study.

Earlier, Chaudhary told PTI on Tuesday morning that during the preliminary investigation, police did not find any record of the woman's admission to the institute or in the hostel that her father mentioned.

The actual circumstances would be clear only after the woman is rescued, however, on the basis of the leads so far, police found no evidence that she had been abducted, SP Duhan said, adding that Kavya was accompanied by her two friends to Jaipur on March 18.

Once Kavya is traced and rescued, it will be clear is she did this under under pressure or free will, she said.

The Kota police have appealed to the woman and her friend to report to a nearby police station or contact her worried parents.

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