Cops dupe abductors with fake currency

Jan. 2: Kidnapping doesn’t always pay. A kidnapped 24-year-old bar owner from Goa was released by his abductors in Belikere near Mysore Friday evening after six days in captivity, in an audacious operation by Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths and their Goa counterparts who paid the kidnappers two suitcases full of ransom — most of it fake currency used in board games.

But the cops could not arrest the abductors, who sped away in two Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) with the suitcases after pushing their hostage, Sagar Wadhwani, out of a moving vehicle.

A visibly traumatised Sagar was brought to the city Saturday morning and was reunited with his father, Inder Wadhwani.

Sagar said he had been abducted near Kolhapur on December 25 while on a business trip. “Two SUVs overtook my car near Ajmi in Kolhapur,” Sagar said. “The occupants of the SUVs pulled me out and bundled me into one of their vehicles.”

The police said Sagar’s abductors brought him to Sankeshwara near Belgaum. “From there they came to Bengaluru and later stayed at a lodge near Chikkaballapur where they locked Sagar in a room and called his father demanding a ransom of Rs 2 crore,” said police commissioner Shankar M. Bidari. “We asked Sagar’s father to stay in touch with them. After much bargaining, they brought down the amount to Rs 35 lakh.”

CCB inspectors Balegowda and Ashokan made the ‘ransom’ drop and secured Sagar’s release.