HYDERABAD: Five persons, including an employee of the Naval Dockyard at Visakhapatnam and a fashion designer, were arrested by the city police on Sunday for abducting a businessman from Somajiguda and releasing him at Neredmet after extorting ransom from his family member two days ago.
The businessman, Narender Thukral, is a resident of Ramakrishnapuram.
The accused are Santosh Reddy, Rajesh Kumar, Shyam Prasad, Janardhan and Sai Krishna.
Punjagutta police said the gang collected information on Narender and lured him by offering him a loan of Rs 50 crore.
The abductors identified themselves as representatives of a nationalised bank and told Narender that he was sanctioned a Rs 50- crore loan which he would get on making a Rs 5-crore deposit.
On the pretext of discussing the matter they asked Narender to meet them at Somajiguda two days ago.
While Narender was waiting at a mall, the gang abducted him and took him in a car to Neredmet where they forced him to call up his brother, Vajender, and make the latter pay Rs 70,000 for his release.
Acting on a complaint lodged by the victim, Punjagutta police tracked down the accused with the help of mobile phone signals and caught them.
Police said Santosh Reddy works at the Naval Dockyard at Visakhapatnam and Rajesh with a nationalised bank in the same city.
Prasad is a fashion designer, Janardhan a marketing executive and Sai Krishna a businessman.
ENGINEER’S KIDNAP: Eight persons from Kadapa were arrested by the Cyberabad police on Sunday for kidnapping an engineer nearly five months ago.
The captive was let off after extorting more than Rs 2 lakh and forcing him to sign on blank cheques and promissory notes, police said.
The victim is G Rama Rao, a resident of Nizampet and employee of a private company in KPHB Colony.
On September 8 last year, Rama Rao was kidnapped by Ravi Kumar Reddy of Kadapa, who works in the same company.
Rama Rao was confined in Ravi Kumar’s house for a day and was let off the next day after collecting Rs 2.90 lakh and forcing him to sign on blank chques and promissory notes.
He was warned not to reveal anything on his kidanap to anyone and he followed the instructions.
But, not being content with the ransom extorted, the accused started calling up Rama Rao again and demanding more money.
Rama Rao lodged a complaint with the KPHB police on January 31.
After investigating the case, police arrested Ravi Kumar and seven others while they were moving in a Tata Safari vehicle.
The other accused have been identified as P Konda Reddy, K Maheshwar Reddy, T Rama Rao, Suresh Reddy, K Ramu, E Prasad and P Chakrapani, all from Kadapa district.
Police recovered Rs 1 lakh in cash, two blank cheques, 4 promissory notes and a vehicle from them.