BHUBANESWAR: Three persons were arrested by police for kidnapping Ashutosh Mohapatra, owner of a City-based second-hand car showroom on April 26. The miscreants have been identified as Subhash Behera, Akshay Sahoo and Biswajit Lenka, all natives of Puri district.
Behera had given `4 lakh to Mohapatra of Khandagiri in 2014 for buying a used car. Mohapatra neither executed the deal nor refunded Behera’s money following which he planned a kidnap and roped in Sahoo and Lenka. One of them called Mohapatra to Puri by-pass road on the pretext of buying a used car and taking a test drive of the vehicle. Mohapatra reached the spot and met one of the miscreants and after travelling for some distance, he was intercepted by Behera and his associates. The trio took him to a place near Konark and then to an undisclosed location where he was threatened at gun point.
The three demanded `10 lakh from Mohapatra and asked him to tell his business partner to transfer the amount to their bank accounts. Behera had assured the kidnappers on April 27 that he will return their money by May 5. The three persons then took his car before leaving him at Nimapara. “Mohapatra lodged a complaint on April 28, following which a case was registered. The three miscreants were nabbed recently and produced in a court on Wednesday,” Mancheswar police said.