Bengaluru: Cops nab 3 more in bizman kidnap bid, recover pistols, cartridges

Bengaluru: Three more were arrested by Pulikeshi Nagar police in the foiled extortion and kidnap attempt on a city-based businessman last month, taking the tally of arrests to seven.

Police claimed to have solved the case with the recovery of three country-made pistols and four live cartridges from the accused. The businessman, Masood Ali, was shot at during the attempt, and police claimed one of the recovered pistols was used in the crime. The evidence was recovered from prime accused Sheikh Zubair’s house, based on his confession. Zubair runs an interior designing firm in the city. The arrested accused are Shabaz Asad (27), his associates Furkhan (26) and Nitin Sharma (27). They worked for Sheikh Zubair, who was earlier arrested along with associates Mehtab N., Niyamatullah and Syed Israr.

Police said that Zubair, who had worked at Ali's house decided to kidnap him to extort a ransom of Rs 5 crore to cover business losses. Zubair offered Shabaz Rs 85,000, asking him to arrange the weapons and kidnap Ali.

Shabaz, who along with Furkhan and Nitin tracked the movements of Masood, intercepted him in a car on the busy Assay Road and pushed him inside the car. When Masood escaped from their clutches, the accused fired at him and fled the spot.

Police used CCTV footage to trace the car registration, which was fake. On analysing the footage further, police noticed scooterists following Masood’s car. They were interrogated, which led to the arrests of Zubair, Mehtab N., Niyamatullah and Syed Israr on June 3. They confessed to the crime and told the police about Shabaz’ role. Shabaz told police he sourced weapons from his hometown using the money given by Zubair for the kidnapping.