CHENNAI: In what was claimed to be a case of mistaken identity, a ruling party councillor and a former councillor were allegedly abducted by an eight-member gang that took them to Tiruvannamalai and beat them up black and blue and later dropped them back in the city after realising that the two were not their targets.
In their statement to police, Ward 12 councillor RV Dhanraj and former councillor Ravi, both from Kaladipet, claimed that they were at the latter’s godown when a gang arrived there in a car, blindfolded them and took them by force to a house in Tiruvannamalai, where they were given a sound thrashing.
The abduction came to light when the victims’ spouses lodged a complaint with the Thiruvottiyur police on Tuesday as their mobile phones remained switched off since Monday night.
As the family was frantically searching for them, Dhanraj contacted his wife Vijayalakshmi from a PCO, informing her that they were at Arumbakkam and were on the way. Vijayalakshmi passed on the information to local police. Upon their arrival at Thiruvottiyur, the duo was found with their face swollen, besides other injuries. Dhanraj and Ravi told police that the gang leader arrived at Tiruvannamalai on Tuesday morning and chided the henchmen for picking up the wrong persons. Following this, they were brought back to the city.
Their blindfolds were not removed despite repeated requests, due to which they could not see their abductors or note down the registration number of the car, the two maintained. With the incident having created a buzz in the city, Dhanraj and Ravi were questioned by officials from the rank of Inspector to the top brass of the city police. Their statements were recorded separately to check for contradictions, but both stuck to the same story and narrated it in the same sequence, sources said. “If we are to believe their version, we have to find out who the gang was after and what their motives were. We are verifying their call logs and tower data to find out their location and to see if it corroborates their account,” said a senior police official privy to the investigation. “It could also be over personal enmity which they are not willing divulge. We will get to that as well,” the official added.