The Mahadevapura police arrested a 21-year-old unemployed man for kidnapping a girl and demanding a ransom of Rs 2 crore.
According to police, the accused has been identified as Rahul, an aspiring actor and a resident of Ittamadu. He had taken Maya, 18 (name changed), daughter of a
businessman, to Ooty in Tamil Nadu and confined her in a room for about six hours. He later took her to Ramanagaram, where he locked her up in a room. He also snatched $4,000 from her and demanded more, threatening to post “intimate” photographs of her with him on social networking sites if she failed to cough up the money.
A few months ago, Rahul and Maya, a PUC student, met through Facebook. After texting each other and talking on the mobile for some time, they fell in love and entered into a relationship, the police said.
Rahul learnt that Maya was from a rich family and her father was a successful businessman. He was emotionally blackmailing her by threatening not to marry her if she failed to bring money. Maya, who feared her parents, did not discuss the issue with anyone. She was also worried about Rahul threatening to post a few intimate photographs of her he had clicked. At the same time, she did not want to stay away from Rahul and listened to whatever he said, added the police.
On June 15, they both decided to go to Ooty and met at Phoenix Market City mall in Mahadevapura. When they reached Ooty, she was locked up in a room for six hours. Rahul took away $4,000, which he had asked her to get it from her house. He made a ransom call to Maya's father and demanded Rs 2 crore. He later took her to Ramanagaram and again locked her up in a hotel room, police said.
“Maya’s parents contacted her friends and found that she had gone to Phoenix Market City and filed a kidnap case with the Mahadevapura police. The police checked with Maya's friend and found out about Rahul. They started tracking both their mobile phone calls, which pointed to Ramanagaram. In the early hours of June 16, police reached Ramanagaram and arrested Rahul and rescued the victim,” said a senior police officer.
A case has been registered in Mahadevapura police station and investigation is on.