BENGALURU: The kidnap case of a 50-year-old Australian resident resulted in the police arresting not only the six miscreants who orchestrated the kidnap but also a drug peddler.
The police said that the accused have been identified as Monesh, Lokesh, Kishore, Ravi, Dileep, and Satish, all residents of Parappana Agrahara, aged between 19 and 25.
Monesh, a tattoo artist, and the mastermind behind the crime, crossed paths with the victim, Rana, during the latter’s visit to Bengaluru to see his brother, Aman Rana, a resident of JP Nagar, the police said. Rana, allegedly a drug addict, connected with Monesh through a dark website to seek ganja. Monesh then allegedly instructed Rana to meet near Bommasandra Circle, where he provided him with the drugs, the police added.
Subsequently, within a period of fewer than two weeks, Rana reached out to Monesh five times to procure drugs. After knowing about Rana’s wealth, Monesh and his friends planned Rana’s kidnap to extort money, the police said.
On February 5, when Rana went to Bommasandra Circle to get the drugs, Monesh asked him to come near their car and allegedly took him to Kishore’s residence in Bommasandra. The accused then tied him and asked him to transfer money amounting to Rs 1.28 lakh into two different accounts. After a while, Rana escaped following which the accused contacted Rana’s brother, Aman, and asked him for a ransom of Rs 40,000, the police added. Till February 20, Rana did not file a police complaint.
Rana holds an Australian citizenship and has retired recently. Around late January, Rana had come to Bengaluru to see his brother who is a businessman.
During interrogation, Monesh revealed that he had been receiving the drugs from a Bihar-based man, Satyanarayan, following which police raided his residence in Tilak Nagar and seized 410 gm of ganja. The police have arrested Satyanarayan and are currently investigating the case involving kidnap.