AGRA, July 16 -- A man and his associate were arrested for allegedly staging the kidnapping of his 10-year-old daughter and fabricating a Rs.40-lakh ransom demand in a bid to raise money from relatives to repay his debts, police said here on Wednesday. The girl returned home within hours of going missing, but police continued investigating the case and found that the kidnapping had been staged, officials said. Assistant commissioner of police (Loha Mandi) Gaurav Singh said Jagdishpura police received information on July 10 that a 10-year-old girl had been kidnapped. "Manish Agarwal, the girl's father, informed police that she had gone for dance classes but did not return. He later claimed to have received a ransom letter demanding Rs.40 lakh for her release. Police teams were formed and a search was launched to trace the girl," the ACP said. According to the ACP, the girl returned home within a couple of hours. However, investigators continued probing the case and on Tuesday concluded that the kidnapping had been staged by Manish Agarwal in cahoots with with his friend, Rajat Gupta. A case was subsequently registered at Jagdishpura police station under sections 318(4) (cheating), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) and 340(2) (forgery of a document) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the two accused, police said. According to the FIR, Agarwal falsely claimed that someone had thrown a ransom letter into his house using a ball after his daughter failed to return from her dance class on July 10. After reviewing the CCTV footage, police questioned the father about the man seen dropping the girl near the house. He allegedly admitted that it was his friend and that he was under a debt of Rs.40 lakh. The accused allegedly told police that he had planned the fake kidnapping to collect Rs.40 lakh from relatives as ransom and use the money to repay his debts. Police said Gupta assisted in executing the plan by keeping the girl at his house before dropping her back after learning that police had launched a search following the complaint....