BENGALURU: An organised extortion gang of eight, that had recently kidnapped two realtors and demanded a ransom of `9 lakh has been arrested by the North-East division police.
The arrested are Nagaraj (41), a history-sheeter, his wife Inju Mari alias Sangeeta (38), Noor Mohammed (32), B Iqbal Hussain (36), Sriram Reddy (30), all are natives of Ballari who live in Hosakerehalli in Banashankari. The others are Shashaank (23), a resident of Hosakerehalli, Arun (25) and Shantraj (25), both from Srinagar.
Police said that two realtors from Tamil Nadu were abducted from a construction site near Hebbal last Sunday and were held captive in a house in R R Nagar. The victims were Muthu Kumar and Madan Kumar, both from Chennai. The duo had come to the city for a project in Hebbal. After their work, they went to a pub in CBD. This is where the gang started following them. The realtors were intercepted on their way back to Hebbal and abducted from there.
The mastermind behind the kidnap is Nagaraj. He and his wife executed the abduction from Ballari. Nagaraj has multiple cases booked against him in various police stations across the state.
According to the police, Nagaraj used to visit pubs and star hotels to identify wealthy people who came in high-end cars and spent lavishly. Once the target is set he would alert the gang members, who would then abduct the person and demand ransom.
The abduction of the realtors came to light after the gang members attacked the driver identified as Manikantan, who managed to escape and informed the police.
As per the direction of the kidnappers, the money was debited to the victims’ account. Later, it was transferred to Sangeeta’s account. The police tracked the transaction and received CCTV footage from a bank in Ballari which showed Sangeeta withdrawing the money.
The police formed a special team and tracked down the accused to RR Nagar and rescued the realtors. Police also recovered two revolvers, live ammunition and a BMW car from them.