Four Sri Lankans were arrested by the city police in the wee hours of Thursday on charges of kidnapping a Lankan businessman for ransom.
Police said the prime accused, Jain Moulana (40), and Dhuvan Kabir (37), both travel sub-agents, had an axe to grind against the kidnapped businessman, Packiaraj Ponnukon. The latter, who ran a manpower consultancy firm by the name Al Karrim Lanka Consultant (Pvt) Ltd, had allegedly cheated 24 persons promising them placements in Canada. Moulana reportedly paid Packiaraj `24.5 lakh each for 17 persons while Kabir coughed up `24.5 lakh each for seven persons.
But all the 24 were arrested by Sri Lankan immigration officials on charges of carrying forged travel documents allegedly supplied by Packiaraj Ponnukon at the airport.
Subsequently, the candidates began pushing the sub-agents to return their money. They, in turn, exerted pressure on Packiaraj who left for Australia and settled down there. Jain Moulana and Dhuvan Kabir were forced escape to Chennai and settle down near Selaiyur. Meanwhile, the affected sub-agents hatched plans to retrieve the money by kidnapping Packiaraj for ransom. Subsequently, they fabricated a business deal and Jain Moulana, posing as a fictitious Richard Sharma working in a manpower consultancy firm, sent out emails and talked Packiaraj into coming down to India. He gathered Packiaraj’s mobile numbers through fake IDs.
As per the plan, Packiaraj was whisked away as soon as he landed in Chennai on March 9. Jain Moulana and Dhuvan Kabir had rented a self-driving car from a service provider in Tambaram. They took Packiaraj to a house in Selaiyur. They later robbed him of 17 sovereigns of gold jewellery and released him after they realised that Packiaraj’s sources in Colombo could not pay up the ransom.
Subsequently, the Deputy High Commissioner of Sri Lanka lodged a complaint with the Nungambakkam Police about a missing Sri Lankan citizen, which was transferred to the Airport Police station where the missing person surfaced again.
City Police Commissioner S George orderd formation of special teams on the supervision of Addl CoP S Rajesh Das to solve the case.
Along with the sub-agents, two others - Mohammed Ramjan and Mohammed Basmi, both SL citizens now residing in Mannadi - were arrested by the special teams from a hideout in the city in the wee hours of Thursday. The special teams were rewarded by the Commissioner for cracking the case.