Bengaluru: Four people, including a woman, have been arrested for kidnapping a former panchayat member on Friday morning near Yelahanka main road. The accused were nabbed within 12 hours of ransom call by the special team formed by the North East division of police.
The accused have been identified as Kantrajgowda Gopalappa, 30, resident of HBR Layout, Renukaprasad G alias Prasad, 41, a resident of Bagalur road, Pradeep Nagegowda, 27, a resident of Horamavu main road and Arshia Mubarak, 32, a resident of Bagalur road.
The victim, Mallikarjunappa alias Mallikarjunaiah, is a resident of Marutinagar in Yelahanka and a former panchayat member. His son, Dr Ravi Kumar R.M., is a doctor by profession and also handles the family business.
According to the police, Mallikarjunappa was abducted when he had gone for his regular morning walk. The gang knew his routine well and was lying in wait.
One of the accused, Kantraj approached him and told him that he was sent by his son’s business associate to get him. Trusting him, Mallikarjunappa got into his car. Kantaraj then took him to an isolated place on Begur Main Road and locked him inside a room.
Later the accused called Mallikarjunappa‘s son and asked him to pay a ransom of Rs 100 crore and when he expressed his inability to raise such a huge sum, they brought it down to Rs 1 crore. The family arranged for Rs 59 lakh and agreed to hand it over to them the next day.
On Saturday morning, the kidnappers asked him to come near Kogilu cross to handover the money and when he reached the place, the accused took the money and then pointed a gun at him. They asked him to remove their gold chains and gold rings and escaped.
Right after this incident, Ravi Kumar registered a complaint with Yelahanka police station. A special team of 30 policemen was formed to nab the accused and they arrested the four and recovered Rs 59 lakh and gold ornaments.
Among the accused, Arshia was the mastermind and she had planned the kidnapping. Pradeep acted as a driver with Kantraj while kidnapping Mallikarjunappa, while Prasad pointed the gun at his son to extract money and ornaments.
Prasad was earlier involved in many cheating cases in the city, while Kantraj was previously been arrested for his involvement in conversion of demonetised currency notes. The Yelahanka police have registered a case.
