india

Updated: Jul 13, 2018 17:41 IST

A 30-year-old man has taken a woman hostage at gunpoint at her home in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal, claiming he loves her and wants to marry her, police said on Friday.

Officials said they came to know of the incident at around 7am and have been trying to rescue the woman. Deputy inspector general of police Dharmendra Choudhary said a team is already in the apartment building and negotiating with the man identified as Rohit Singh.

Sources said Singh entered the apartment at Fortune City with a gun, took the woman hostage and threatened to kill her as well as himself. They said the woman, who holds a master’s degree in technology, met Singh while she doing some modelling assignments in Mumbai.

Reports said the woman’s parents are also inside the house and that they have been locked in one of the rooms in the fifth-storey flat.

Singh released a video clip in which a woman is seen lying on a bed and blood all over the floor. He introduces himself and also names the woman, claiming they love each other. He says her parents called her back to Bhopal after came to know of their relationship.

Singh said the police were responsible for the condition of the woman.

“See all the blood. The police have surrounded us and they attacked us with knives and you can see the condition. There is blood all around. Please share his video as much as possible so that the police are brought to justice,” he says in the clip.

The apartment block where a woman was held hostage allegedlyby her stalker. ( HT photo )

He told Zee News that he has been harassed by police in the past.

“When I reached Bhopal, a police complaint was filed against me. They harassed me, tortured me which is why I took this step,” the news channel quoted him as saying.

“If the crowd outside the door was not there, I would have come out a lot earlier.”

News agency ANI quoted an unnamed police officer as saying that Singh asked them for a stamp paper and mobile charger. “When we tried to barge in, he threatened us,” the officer added.

Superintendent of police (south) Rahul Lodhi said the woman is fine and they are constantly in touch with Singh and trying to negotiate with him.

Lodhi also asked reporters to move away from the area, saying Singh is getting nervous.