Kidnap Leader Extradited From India
The ringleader for a group which kidnapped a woman from Leicester has been jailed.
Kalvinder Singh Uppal, 50, was sentenced to five years at Leicester Crown Court. Six other members of the group were jailed in 2011, and another in 2012. But Uppal fled to India. Leicestershire Police pursued him, and he was extradited last November.
The offence took place in July 2010. The woman had been kidnapped at knifepoint from her house in the Highfields area of Leicester.
She was an Indian national who had been brought into this country on the pretence that she would work as a dancer in the entertainment industry.
However, when she arrived in the UK she was made to offer sexual services to men in return for money. She made her bid for freedom when the gang dropped her at Birmingham Airport, while they were trying to take her back to India.
Detective Inspector Tim Lindley from Leicestershire Police led the team which brought Uppal back to this country.
He said: “The victim was threatened with sexual violence and threatened with death. She is now getting on with her life, but she is still wary when she is in public four years on.”
DI Lindley said of Uppal: “He was undoubtedly the lynchpin, and he enjoyed the control he had over his victim. “We do not allow people to evade justice, no matter where they run to.
“I would like to thank the Indian authorities for their co-operation, and also the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Serious Organised Crime Agency/National Crime Agency.”
The seven men jailed previously received sentences of between 18 months and 42 months.
