Jaipur, Oct.22,2025:The Jaipur student kidnapping has emerged as a chilling reminder of how vulnerable young travellers can become, even in broad daylight. Early on a major festival day, a female college student was abducted from a crowded station in Jaipur and taken hundreds of kilometres away. The incident highlights not just an individual crime but the interplay of superstition, coercion and systemic safety failures-
Incident overview and timeline
On the morning of Diwali, while returning home on holiday from her college studies in Jaipur, the 20-year-old student stood at Gate 3 of Jaipur Railway Station waiting with friends around 5:30 AM.
Suddenly, she went missing. Her mobile phone was switched off, and panic set in among her friends and family. Her classmates alerted the local station-house, and her family arrived in Jaipur to file a missing person report.
Within days, tracing phone location and call-details, police tracked her to Sector 55 in Faridabad, where she was found alive but in a traumatised state. She was brought back to Jaipur safely.
Who is the alleged ‘tantrik’
The accused in this disturbing case is described as a “tantrik” – a person claiming supernatural healing or spiritual powers. According to police statements, he used his status to gain access to the victim’s family home where he had performed some rituals in the past.
He allegedly told the family that the student was under the influence of a “preta atma” (evil spirit) and offered “treatment”, thereby building familiarity and trust. When the opportunity arose, he abducted her.
While his full identity has not yet been publicly released, police are on the lookout and an FIR has been registered.
Victim’s background and motive for travel
The student is originally from Haryana and was studying at a college in Jaipur. Her family had returned to Jaipur for her holiday journey home for Diwali.
She and her friends were heading to catch a train early in the morning, which underscores how ordinary travel plans can be intercepted by malicious intent. She was not part of any high-risk group as such, which heightens the alarm regarding the audacity of the act.
The kidnapping journey
After the abduction at Jaipur Railway Station, the accused transported the student to Faridabad. The method included forcibly switching off her phone, isolating her from peers and family, and forcing movement across state boundaries.
In Faridabad, she was held in a room where surveillance and monitoring were implied—phone tracking, call logs helped police locate her. The fact that a young woman could be moved and held for days signals serious lapses in passenger surveillance and inter-state police coordination.
Forced marriage pressure, threats and a fake suicide note
Once in captivity, the victim faced a terrifying psychological ordeal. The accused forced her to write a suicide note under duress, threatened to kill her family if she did not comply, and pressured her into marrying him.
He claimed that unless she married him, a family massacre would occur—this manipulation of fear and threat shows a deeply exploitative mindset. The motive appears to mix false spiritual pretexts (“preta atma”) with desire for forced marriage and control.
Rescue operation and police response
The rescue of the student was effected by the local police under the leadership of the ACP (Sadar) Dharmveer Singh. He confirmed that the student was found safely and taken back to Jaipur.
An FIR has been filed upon the victim’s complaint and investigations are ongoing. The key tools in the rescue were mobile-phone tracking, call-detail analysis and inter-jurisdictional cooperation between Rajasthan and Haryana.
However, questions remain about how the abductor managed such movement and hold in another state without early intervention.
Legal, social and psychological implications
Legal implications
The abduction from a railway station and movement across state borders engages multiple laws—kidnapping (IPC 363 etc.), coercion for forced marriage, physical and psychological threat. Difficulties often arise in coordination when one state’s citizen is trafficked to another state.
Social implications
The role of superstition and unscrupulous ‘tantriks’ exploiting belief systems is a worrying dimension. Families trusting spiritual healers may inadvertently open doors to manipulation. The incident highlights a need for public awareness on how so-called spiritual interventions can mask criminal intent.
Psychological implications
For the victim, the ordeal of being abducted, threatened, forced to write a suicide note and coerced into a fake marriage is deeply traumatic. Survivors of such crimes often need long-term mental health support, which is frequently lacking in our system.
Improving safety- What students, parents and authorities must do
For students
- Travel early morning but stay alert in crowded hubs like railway stations; use group travel or trusted rides.
- Share live location with family/friends during travel.
- Keep phone charged and accessible; avoid switching off for convenience when alone.
For parents
- Make sure children travelling during festivals or holidays inform you of gate numbers, platform, departure times.
- Verify the identity of any ‘spiritual healer’ or guest entering your home if youth are present alone.
For authorities
- Railways and police should enhance CCTV, station-gate monitoring especially during holiday rush.
- Speedy inter-state coordination: Rajasthan & Haryana police units need rapid liaison in such cases.
- Stronger regulation of people practising spiritual healing under the guise of “tantrik” services; awareness campaigns.
Public messaging on “fake godmen and spiritual exploitation” must be strengthened. Many vulnerable families trust unverified healers—and criminals exploit that.
The Jaipur student kidnapping case is deeply disturbing yet instructive. It reveals how a seemingly routine holiday-train journey turned into a nightmare of abduction, coercion and spiritual deception. For the young student and her family, the trauma will linger long after the immediate rescue. For society, the case is a clarion call: vigilance, better protection and sensitivity are needed. Families must be alert to the dangers that lurk even on familiar paths; authorities must respond with urgency, coordination and preventive awareness; young travellers must guard themselves even amid festival cheer. Only then can we hope to reduce such horrifying incidents.
