BENGALURU: Three people were arrested by Yeswanthpur police on Wednesday for allegedly kidnapping a 71-year-old woman and demanding a ransom of Rs 1.5 crore.
The arrested are Krishna (33), Vijayakumar (32) and Srinivas (35), who had earlier served time in jail. The victim is Vimala, a resident of Matsalyanagar. The accused were caught within 12 hours of Vimala’s son Shivakumar filing a complaint with the police on Tuesday.
According to police, Shivakumar, who owns a factory in Peenya, received a phone call at 11.30am on Tuesday saying he had won a prize and should collect it from a courier outlet. He had earlier received a message stating the same.
When he went there, he realised it was a fake call. When he came back, his mother Vimala was not home and the door was locked from outside. He waited, assuming she had gone to the hospital.
He received a call again at 2.30pm. This time, one of the accused told him that his mother had been kidnapped. By 6.30pm Shivakumar filed a police complaint. Around 7 pm, he got another call and the accused demanded a ransom of Rs 1.5 crore and threatened to kill Vimala should he fail to pay.
Police formed three teams who tracked the phone calls and rescued Vimala from Vijaykumar’s house in Hebbal.
Investigations revealed that the accused had hatched the plan to kidnap Vimala in Parappana Agrahara jail where the trio met.
Krishna was in jail on rape charges while Vijaykumar and Srinivas were arrested in a murder case. The accused are in police custody.