TIRUPUR: A special team formed by the Tirupur district police arrested a seven-member gang near Amaravathy on Friday night in connection with the abduction of the personal assistant of Minister of Animal Husbandry Udumalai K Radhakrishnan on September 23.
Police sources said the motive behind the abduction of the minister's PA Karnan at knife point from the MLA's office in Udumalai was apparently to extort money.
The Udumalai police have produced the suspects at the judicial magistrate and remanded them at Tirupur Sub Jail on the same day of the arrest.
According to the sources, the arrested men have been identified as D Pradeep (39), S Arunkumar (23), M Surendran (27) and D Devarajalu (55) from Udumalai and R Vinoth (20), G Selvaganapathi (23) and S Dhaga (21) from Pattukottai.
The suspects were charged under section 447 (punishment for criminal trespass), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) and 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) of the Indian Penal Code.
Meanwhile, the video footage collected from the MLA's office at Udumalai shows four persons barging into the premises and making away with Karnan on September 23. Around 35 minutes later, the gang freed him near Vazhapadi, some 13 km from Udumalai. Further investigations are on.