HUBBALLI: The Hubballi police have cracked a kidnapping case of an engineering student reported on August 6. The accused had kidnapped the student and had demanded a large ransom for his release.
However, the police managed to nab the seven kidnappers and freed the student.
The incident was reported at Gokul Road when the victim student was going home from his college. As the victim was known to kidnappers, the accused had no problem in taking him away.
The police said that student Garib Nawaz Mulla, 21, resident of Mantur Road in the city has been safely reunited with his family. Soon after he was kidnapped on the evening of August 6, the victim’s brother lodged a complaint with Bendigeri police station.
Hubballi-Dharwad Police Commissioner Labhu Ram formed four teams headed by police inspectors and the teams managed to arrest the accused within a day of the incident. The accused were arrested in Kittur in Belagavi district.
The accused Abdul Karim, 24, Imran Bangadiwale, 28, Tausif Katwale, 26, Hussainsab Makandar, 27, Mohammed Razaq, 26, Arif Dastikoppa, 29 and Imnu alias Imran, 27, all residents of Hubballi have now been remanded to judical custody. The accused work in different sectors as cooks, construction labours, and drivers.
Police said that victim Garib Nawaz Mulla’s friend Dilawar of Talikoti town in Vijayapura district was preparing for exams in Hubballi and was residing at a paying guest. Both Garib and Dilawar allegedly played online casinos in which Dilawar won a large amount of money.
In order to get the large sum of money Dilawad had to produce a current account number which he did not have. Hence he asked for help of Abdul Karim of Vidyanagar in the city.
Karim works as a cook in Hubballi and knows Dilawar. After depositing the money Dilawar made a withdrawal of a large sum of money from their account of Karim which prompted Karim to hatch a plan of kidnapping.
Karim called his friends who were working in different parts of Hubballi and made a plan to kidnap Dilawar. As they could not find Dilawar, they kidnapped Garib thinking that he may have lottery money as well. But upon realising that they have picked up the wrong man, the kidnappers demanded Rs 15 lakh ransom from the family of Garib. As the amount was too high for the family member they approached the police for help.
Police commissioner Labhu Ram said an inquiry is being made about the alleged lottery amount.
"The bank details of the victim and his friend will be checked. We had formed teams to trace the kidnappers and they were traced by the police within nine hours after the incident was lodged. A car and mobile phones have been seized from the kidnappers," he said.