ROURKELA: Sundargarh Police have arrested seven persons who allegedly kidnapped a youth over the lure of a Hanuman coin.
SP Sagarika Nath on Wednesday informed that the 10 persons were nabbed including the seven on kidnap charges and three for cheating besides, the hostage rescued.
The kidnappers belong to Sundargarh and other districts and wanted to procure Hanuman coin as they believed that it possesses some mysterious power. They are Shraban Patra (24), Rakesh Sharma alias Lokesh (26), Suresh Rout (38), Lingraj Suhuda, Agasthi Mishra (30), Dev Barbhuyan (25) and Tapan Bagh (25).
They came in contact with a local gang led by Madhav Minz (26) who convinced them of having the mysterious coin.
Following a deal of Rs 6 lakh, an advance sum of Rs 3 lakh was paid by the seven youths to the con men on September 10.
However, things went wrong with Madhav and his gang refused to give them the coin before payment of the remaining amount. The group of kidnappers smelt rat and sought refund only to be shrugged off.
On Monday at around 4.45 pm, Madhav and his aide Bunty Sahu (27) were present near Kirei when some youths kidnapped Madhav and took him away in a car.
Later in the day, Bunty received a ransom call demanding Rs 6 lakh for Madhav’s release.
On Tuesday, Bunty lodged a kidnap complaint at the Sundargarh Town police station stating that the ransom demand was increased `20 lakh by the miscreants.
The SP said after seven hours of investigation, police solved the kidnap case and further investigation brought to fore the dramatic turn of events involving the Hanuman coin. She said the seizure includes Rs 2.15 lakh from the con men, a car, a motorcycle and mobile phones used in the crime.
Town police station IIC Sribatsa Jena said apart from the seven, Madhav, Bunty and Sony, all of Sundargarh district, were arrested on the charges of cheating and criminal intimidation and one Shiba is absconding.