Man threatens doc couple, walks into police dragnet

A jobless man is cooling his heels behind bars for threatening to kidnap the son of a doctor couple if they failed to pay him Rs 10 lakh.

The Southeast Division police laid a trap for Waseem, 28, a resident of Yelahanka, and arrested him in Nelamangala on Wednesday morning.

On January 19, the couple complained to the Electronics City police that they were receiving threatening e-mails and phone calls from an unknown individual demanding money. They said he had threatened to kidnap their nine-year-old son if they did not pay him.

Police said the worried parents had not sent their son to school for a couple of weeks fearing he would be kidnapped and harmed.

The police began tracking the suspect and found that he had sent emails to the doctor couple from cyber cafes in Shivajinagar, Nagawara, Ramamurthy Nagar in Bengaluru and Bangarpet in the neighbouring Kolar district. They also traced the phone calls to coin box phones located on Tannery Road, Chikkaballapur, Bangarpet, and Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh.

With his emails and phone calls sure to have scared the couple, a confident Waseem raised his demand from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.The police, meanwhile, widened the dragnet and asked the couple to reply to his emails, agreeing to pay him the money. Waseem replied to the mail, fixing the day, spot and time to collect the money.

Rohini Katoch Sepat, DCP, South-East, said, “On Tuesday, around 15 plainclothesmen went to Nelamangala, the place fixed by the suspect. They waited there for more than 24 hours along with the couple, but there was no sign of the man. On Wednesday morning, the cops pretended to repair their vehicle and noticed a man moving around suspiciously. They took him into custody immediately.”

During interrogation, Waseem confessed to sending the threatening emails and making calls to the doctor couple. He told the police he had visited a health camp organised by the couple and got their visiting card. He looked for them on Facebook and found they had a young son and hatched a plan to make a quick buck, the officer said.

Waseem had tried his hand at several businesses, including mobile phone dealership, real estate and farming. But he suffered huge losses and was idling at home for a few years. He told the police he was inspired by movies to take to crime.