VISAKHAPATNAM : Within a week after the city police cracked the sensational kidnap case of the nine-year-old boy, yet another abduction case kept them on tenterhooks for the last 24 days. However, the cops rescued the victim, K Nageswara Rao of Marripalem, who was taken as hostage on September 18, and arrested five persons involved in the crime.
The accused were identified as D Rajalingayya (62), B Jagadeeshwara Rao (44), R Satyanarayana (30), G Nageswara Rao (50) of Manuguru in Khammam district and Ch Kranthi Kumar (26) of Vizianagaram.
According to inspector of police B Tirumala Rao (airport zone), Nageswara Rao was a retired bank manager of Grahmin Vikas Bank, Manuguru branch in Khammam district. He shifted to Visakhapatnam post-retirement and had been staying with his wife at Marripalem for the last two years.
During his career in Manuguru, he took money from some people and failed to clear the debt. Having waited for a long time, they all hatched a plan to kidnap the retired employee for ransom. On September 18, they telephoned Nageswara Rao and asked him to meet at RTC Complex Junction to discuss the issue. However, they abducted him and called his daughter, who was residing in Hyderabad, to get `2 lakh to II-Town area to free him. Nageswara Rao’s daughter immediately alerted her family members and relatives in Visakhapatnam, who lodged a complaint with the Kancharapalem police the next day.
Acting on a tip-off, the cops traced the kidnappers while they were taking the amount from Nageswara Rao’s family here Saturday. They will be produced before court on Monday.