Bengaluru: The Banasawadi police arrested a gang of five kidnappers, including a manager of Bounce service provider, who kidnapped owners of shamiyana providers and extorted ` 10 lakh in jewellery and cash from them. Yeshwanth Naik (25), Mohammad Sharif (26) both from Ayanur town in Shivamogga district, Ananda Banu alias Ananda (28), a resident of Anneshwara Gate near Devanahalli, Chandrashekara (27) from Hosanagar in Shivamogga and Shashikumar (24) from Devanahalli are the arrested.
Yeshwanth planned the two kidnaps, while Mohammad Sharif, a manager with Bounce, gathered all the information and supported the team. The two watched videos on the internet to find out ways to kidnap people. They chalked out plans and gathered men to commit crimes.
The accused had kidnapped Amman Tent House owner K.P. Ramanujam and S.M.E. Shamiyana House owner V. Ravi on different days. Yeshwanth, who worked for Ramanujam, had seen high-value transactions.
Accused Shashikumar approached Ramanujam and Ravi, promised them a business of Rs 7 lakh and took them to show the place to erect shamiyana. At the spot, other accused waited in Innova and Swift cars and kidnapped Ramanujam and Ravi. Kidnappers assaulted their victims in the car and put knife on their necks to make them call their families.
The victims asked their wives to give all the jewellery at home as they urgently needed it for a business. One of the accused people went to their houses and collected the jewellery.
The kidnappers kept the victims in a dilapidated house near Devanahalli. They had taken Ravi to an ATM and withdrew Rs 40,000. They released the victims around 4 am on Friday.
After registering the complaints, the police arrested Shashikumar as he had approached the victims. During the interrogation, he spilled the beans leading to the arrest of other accused. East DCP Dr Sharanappa appreciated the efforts of ACP P. Raviprasad and Banasawadi Inspector H. Jayaraj.
