US: Suspect in Indian-origin family kidnapping found, victims still missing

A man suspected of kidnapping a Sikh family — including an 8-month-old baby — in central California tried to kill himself on Tuesday and is hospitalised in a critical condition, authorities said. The family is still missing.

The Merced County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that investigators identified Jesus Salgado, 48, after he used a victim's ATM card. The family was kidnapped on Monday at gunpoint from a business in Merced, the office said, without providing further details. According to Naindeep Singh, the head of a local Sikh community organisation, the four were taken from convenience store they owned (in a gas station).

Detectives obtained an surveillance photo from the ATM in Atwater, a city about 14km north of Merced, and “the person is similar in appearance to the surveillance photo from the original kidnapping scene", the office said in a statement. The sheriff’s office had released two still images of a possible suspect seen in surveillance footage, and asked for the public’s help in identifying him.

Detectives received information that identified Salgado as a person of interest and that he attempted to take his own life before police arrived, the statement said, without specifying where he was taken into custody. The sheriff's office will hold a news conference Wednesday to give more details.

The kidnapper took the baby, Aroohi Dher, the child’s mother, Jasleen Kaur (27), father Jasdeep Singh (36), and uncle Amandeep Singh (39) said Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke in a video published Monday on Facebook.

Warnke said the kidnapper made no ransom demands or contact of any kind.

Naindeep Singh, executive director of Jakara Movement, a Punjabi Sikh community organisation in central California, said the victims' relatives told him the family was taken from their gas station.

• Dubai: Gang kidnaps businessman, demands Dh30,000 as ransom; jailed