Madurai bizman’s extortion mystery solved, 3 arrested

Bhopal: The crime branch on Saturday claimed to have arrested three members of the gang which called a Madurai in Tamil Nadu based industrialist to Bhopal and extorted Rs 21 lakh from him after abducting him in a car at pistol point.Police are still searching for the main Haryana based conspirator, the prime accused, and his local Bhopal based accomplice. The case is an odd combination of cyber-crime and property offence. Police said that the prime accused came in contact with the industrialist through social media and targeted him. DCP (Crime Branch) Shrut Kirti Somvanshi said that the complainant V Satish, 39, a Madurai, Tamil Nadu based industrialist, runs a plastic pipe and raw material factory. Recently, a person introducing himself as plastic raw material supplier had approached him to supply 25 tonnes of plastic raw material through WhatsApp. When Satish reached Bhopal by flight on June 23 to inspect the goods, three men in a car kidnapped him on the pretext of taking him to the goods supplier’s office and snatched Rs 40,000 from him after beating him on the way. Later, he was kept hostage in a room and forced to transfer a total of Rs 20 lakh online at pistol point. The accused snatched his smartphone and left him on Gwalior-Indore highway. Satish managed to reach Bangalore from Indore and from there to his home. Later, on June 29, he came to Bhopal and lodged a report with the crime branch.DCP Somvanshi said that police arrested Hameed alias Bunty, a resident of Guna, presently residing at Parewakheda in Eintkhedi, Saddam Ali, a resident of Arvaliya in Eintkhedi and Ramsingh Meena, a resident of Shamshabad in Vidisha district. Search was on for their Bhopal based accomplice Ashiq and the main conspirator Kaushik, a resident of Haryana, who carried out the crime. DCP Somvanshi said that the prime accused, a resident of Haryana, had contacted Ashiq in Bhopal and given him the task to abduct the victim. Ashiq involved Hamid and Saddam with him and abducted the businessman. They took him to Ram Singh’s home in Shamshabad where they held him hostage. After extorting the money, they took him to Guna and left him on Indore road.