Four, including realtor, arrested for extorting money from techie

A gang of four men, including a realtor, was arrested for faking the kidnapping of a software engineer to extort Rs 17.5 lakh from him.

The Hebbal police arrested Mohammed Waseem, Pradeep Sagar, Sunil Yuvaraj and Salman, while the fifth accused Syed is still on the run.

The police said Waseem, the prime accused in the kidnap case, conspired with his friends to stage the kidnapping of Jita Mitra (36), owner of a call centre, to extort money. They invested in real estate that fetched handsome returns for Mitra. Having known Mitra’s earnings, Waseem hatched a plot with his friends Sagar, Yuvaraj, Salman and Syed to abduct Mitra.

On May 7, as Mitra was returning home, the gang intercepted his car and accused him of colliding with their vehicle.

They forced Mitra to sit in their car, drove him to an isolated place and tortured him, demanding ransom.

As planned, the men asked him to approach his friends to hand them the ransom money. As expected, Mitra turned to his friend Waseem to get the ransom. The men then released Mitra, saying his friend Waseem paid them in two instalments, while actually Waseem only took the alleged ransom from Mitra.

The men then tortured Mitra to stay silent, but soon after his release, he approached the police to inform them about the incident.

Summoned by the police, Waseem told them that he paid the ransom money to the kidnappers, but they grew suspicious when Waseem evaded their calls and failed to turn up.

Waseem, meanwhile, called Mitra to express his disapproval of him going to the police. Mitra tipped off the police about the call, on the basis of which they took him in their custody and confirmed his involvement. The police also managed to track down the other accused on Friday. The police produced the four accused before a magistrate, who remanded them to judicial custody.