Cops foil kidnap bid, nab four

The abductors, who came in a Maruti Van, waylaid a tanker which was transporting furnish oil to Nanjangud from Mangalore, near Donigal on Bangalore-Mangalore National Highway at around 8 pm on Tuesday.

They forcibly took the tanker owner S Venugopal, resident of Nagarabhavi, Bangalore, into their hold. However, the tanker driver escaped in the melee and rushed to inform the villagers, who in turn immediately brought this to the notice of the police.

Inspector Ganesh, Town PSI Deepak, Rural PSI Raju and Yasaluru PSI Ramesh and staff immediately swung into action and traced the van that was proceeding towards Madikeri.
What followed for the next 45 minutes is sure to send adrenaline pumping as it involved chase scene and the alert cops with the help of the villagers tried to stop the kidnappers vehicle, by putting up barricades in the form of vehicles at various spots to check the van.

When the abductors passed Shukravara Santhe, the villagers parked a truck on the way. Noticing this, the culprits tried to reverse their vehicle and escape. But their luck ended as the policemen following them arrested the miscreants along with the Maruti van.

The accused have been identified as Mohan, Arun Shetty, Santosh, and Manohar all hailing from Madikeri. The owner of the tanker Venugopal sustained injuries on the ears and other parts of the body.  It has come to light that one of the accused Mohan was earlier working with Venugopal, as a driver. Mohan was said to be an alcoholic was handing over the tanker to the cleaner at times, which had resulted in mishaps.

Irked over this, Venugopal had sent him home just four days ago. Peeved at losing the job, he along with others tried to take a revenge against the tanker owner and hatched a plan.

The Police have registered a case and are investigating.