Five arrested for businessman's kidnap

Devaraja police have arrested five youth on charges of kidnapping a businessman of the city.

The accused have been identified as Soma alias ‘RX Somashekar’, a resident of K G Koppal, Supreeth of Nivedita Nagar, Manjunath and Kiran of Saraswatipuram and Shravan of Chamaraja double road in the city. The five had allegedly kidnapped Amar Singh, a resident of Krishnavilas road on February 10, only to release him the following day. Soma had lent Rs 8 lakh to Pradeep Singh, Amar Singh’s brother. The Singhs were earlier running a tarpaulin shop on D Devaraja Urs road here.

On February 10, around 10 pm, Soma called Amar Singh outside his home over cellphone on the pretext of holding talks over the loan issue. Amar Singh was later kidnapped by Soma and other accused. Pradeep Singh, who learnt about his brother going missing from the latter’s wife, lodged a complaint with Devaraja police. The police, during investigation, managed to unearth that Amar Singh had gone out that night to meet Soma. When the police intensified their investigation, Soma let off Amar Singh on February 11 near the court complex, after making him sign a blank bond paper. Police could reach the kidnappers hiding in Ejipura, near Koramangala in Bangalore, on Friday and produced them before a court in Mysore on Saturday.