BENGALURU: A couple moving about in Mulabagilu, holding hands and visiting coffee shops and parks on Sunday did not attract any passersby. But they actually helped rescue a man held hostage by three people, hours after he was abducted.
The couple were actually cops in disguise — Shivajinagar police sub-inspector Sheela Gowda and her colleague Shamiulla. The two were supported by Ansar Beig and a team of police personnel in plainclothes, tracking the three kidnappers and keeping vigil over their colleagues.
Karthik, an employee of a Queen’s Road-located multi-level marketing company, Direct Selling Tours and Travels, was taken hostage on Sunday morning from near his office by the three who were angry over the firm not returning the Rs 2.5 lakh they had invested in it.
But the trio had failed to understand that returns were guaranteed only if they recruited more people into the direct marketing chain, the police said. The three kidnappers — Hafiz, Mohammed Sheikh and Ghous Peer — called the company’s owner, Vivan, to demand the money as ransom, failing which Karthik would be killed.
Vivan alerted the police, and Sheela and her team swung into action. They asked Vivan to inform the kidnappers that he would return the money. When Vivan called the kidnappers, they asked him to come to Mulabagilu in the evening.
Sheela and Shamiulla, and their team followed Vivan to Mulabagilu, about 100 km from airport. Once there, the kidnappers asked Vivan to reach Chittoor, as they suspected that he had come with cops. Sheela told him to convince the kidnappers that the money would be given to them in Mulabagilu as it was 7 pm and the trio agreed.
Vivan informed Sheela that the kidnappers had relatives in Mulabagilu, as they had mentioned in the forms while investing money. That was when Sheela and Shamiulla started moving about posing as ‘lovers’ and the team spotted the trio.
It was the kidnappers who made a call to Vivan asking him to come to a restaurant, even as they were followed by Beig and the other cops. “My colleague and I went around restaurants and fields even as our team in a private car watched the kidnappers move around on two KTM bikes. We were in plainclothes, and even held hands and walked ... so no one got any suspicion,” said Sheela.
Vivan was asked to remain out of sight as Sheela and her ‘boyfriend’ made their way to the restaurant. They spotted the kidnappers outside the restaurant. The trio never suspected anything as the couple moved in with their colleagues close behind, and nabbed them.
Hafiz, Sheikh and Peer confessed to have kept Karthik at a house in Venkatagiri Kota in Andhra Pradesh. Karthik was rescued the same night. Accused were taken in judicial custody on Monday.
RECENTLY, COPS HAD POSED AS DEVOTEES
Recently, six women constables, dressed in salwars, went to Banashankari temple and posed as devotees and nabbed Uma alias Durgi, who had 35-40 chain snatching cases against her.