Police in Himachal Pradesh, India, have arrested Sumit Sood, a 43-year-old man accused of kidnapping three students from Bishop Cotton School (BCS) in Shimla and attempting to shift the blame onto Nigerian citizens.

The incident happened on August 9, 2025, during the Raksha Bandhan holiday, when the three Class VI students were granted outing passes. Sood, a former BCS student himself, allegedly lured and abducted them.

According to The Indian Express, Sood contacted the children’s parents, claiming he had been forced by a so-called “Nigerian gang” to demand ransom in Bitcoin. He warned the parents not to inform anyone, insisting the supposed gang would harm both him and the children if the ransom demand was ignored.

“Sood pretended he was threatened by the gang to make the ransom calls,” said Shimla SP Sanjeev Gandhi, noting the children remain shaken by the ordeal.

Police tracked Sood to his home in Kokunala village near Kotkhai, where they rescued the three students and recovered a vehicle with a fake registration number. A licensed firearm, a machete, and other sharp weapons were also seized.

Investigations revealed that Sood had been monitoring dozens of news sites and the school’s website to see if the abduction had been reported. When he realised it had, he allegedly planned to move the children to Chandigarh.

On August 13, 2025, a Shimla court sent Sood to judicial custody, pending further investigation. Authorities are now seeking his voice samples to compare with recorded ransom calls.

The kidnapped students—who hail from Kullu, Karnal (Haryana), and Mohali (Punjab)—have since been reunited with their families. One of them is a relative of Punjab’s Education Minister, Harjot Singh Bains, who visited the school following the incident.

The BCS administration has since tightened rules, stating that students will now only be allowed off-campus under the supervision of adults or school staff.