Chennai: The City police on Monday rescued the teenager son of a city businessman who was kidnapped for a ransom of Rs 2 crore on Saturday night. Madan (30), a former employee with the businessman masterminded the kidnap along with his paramour, K.Kurshid (42), police said.
Kurshid’s teenage daughter, a first year college student lured Abishek into the kidnap trap by pretending to be in love with the boy. R.Abishek (19), second son of businessman Ravi Sundaram, is an engineering dropout who lives with his family at Poes Garden. His father runs an export-import business of herbal products.
Investigations revealed that Abishek had been speaking over phone with the girl and exchanged text messages for a little over a month. The girl had been acting on the instructions of Madan and was also party to the crime, police said.
“On Saturday night, Abishek was supposed to meet the girl for the first time when he walked straight into their trap and got kidnapped,” an investigating officer said. He was taken to Kurshid’s hideout in Urapakkam near Guduvanchery on the outskirts.
The kidnappers then called Abishek's mother early on Sunday and demanded a ransom of Rs 2 crore to release her son and disconnected. The family approached the Teynampet police who helped the family negotiate with the kidnappers while a rescue operation was underway. The kidnappers finally settled on a ransom amount of 38 lakhs after negotiations.
"From the mobile phone signal, we found that the boy was near the airport area. Seven special teams including two assistant commissioners were pressed into operation," according to a senior police officer.
The negotiations with the businessman went on throughout the day and finally a rendezvous was decided to handover the money. "Our personnel were on the trail of the businessman's car all along. Some of them were in load autorickshaws, a few of them posed as couples in share autos and a few were on their two-wheelers," T. Nagar Deputy Commissioner P. Saravanan said.
A police team gave a chase to two sedans on the Pallavaram - Thoraipakkam radial road after it was found that two cars were following the businessman's car. One of the drivers lost control of the vehicle and rammed it into a barricade on the road and the car overturned.
Three persons — K.Sadam Husain (24), A.Ahmed (27), G. Rizwan (26) — all from Tuticorin district and employees of a prawn-processing unit - were rounded up by the police. Abishek was rescued from the other car which was intercepted by the cops. The team picked up Kurshid and another suspect, A.Syed Yasir Kanifa who were in the other car.
"Abishek had minor injuries as he was hit by the kidnappers on the day he was kidnapped. He was kept blindfolded and gagged in the backseat of the car," said a senior police officer. Teams have been formed to arrest Madan and three others who are absconding, police said.
