Bengaluru: Cops bust seven-member gang, rescue 10-year-old

Bengaluru: East division police have arrested a seven-member gang for kidnapping the 10-year-old son of a timber merchant, rescuing the boy. The accused are Naresh, Jagadish, Anil, Venkatesh, Rajesh, Ponnuswamy and Subramani.

The gang had kidnapped Mayank, son of Harish Patel, on Saturday morning from Aiyappanagar Main Road in K.R. Puram, around 8.30 am while he was going to school. The kidnappers pushed Mayank’s grandfather, who was accompanying him and took away the boy in a car.

After reaching Mulabagilu, Kolar, the abductors made a ransom call to Patel, who runs Vinayaka Timber Yard in Devasandra, demanding '20 lakh for the safe release of his son. Patel then approached K.R. Puram police and filed a kidnap case. Police formed four special teams to rescue the boy.

“When details of the ransom call were verified, it was found that several calls were made to phone numbers of accused Naresh and Jagadish. Naresh was working with Patel for the last year. To avoid suspicion, Naresh and Jagadish accompanied Patel to the station! Naresh later confessed to hatching the plot as he knew of Patel’s huge sums of money,” police said.

“He approached his friend Jagadish who agreed to help. Afraid of getting involved directly and giving the game away, they roped in five others to carry out the crime. They passed information to other members about the boy’s whereabouts. Police teams pursued the abductors by tracking their mobile signals, with information from the technical team,” cops added.

The boy was at a house in Palamaner, AP owned by Venkatesh’s aunt. Around 11 pm, police teams found the place, arresting Venkatesh and Anil. The boy was brought back with the accused. Later, police made Naresh call the others, who were in Hosur.. A team was sent and the three were arrested early on Sunday.

Ransom was lowered
The accused had reportedly planned to demand Rs 2 crore as ransom from the boy’s father. However, thinking that he would approach the police if they demand such a huge amount, they demanded only Rs 20 lakh. “In order to ensure that the boy did not cry, the accused gave him chocolates and biscuits throughout their journey. They had told Mayank that they would take him to his parents on Sunday morning, assuming they would get the money,” an official said.