Brothers kidnap own employee who siphoned off Rs 3 lakh

Decide to 'teach him a lesson' as he failed to pay up

 Two brothers running a telecom service agency kidnapped one of their own employees who had siphoned off Rs three lakh from them and asked his family to repay the money as ransom for his release, the police said.

Maruthi and his brother Kalyan have a distributorship for Aircel and had employed one Muniraju, 38, from Sunkadakatte. Six months ago, Muniraju reportedly siphoned off Rs three lakh from them. The fraud came to light only a month later. The brothers demanded their money back, but Muniraju promised to repay them in instalments, a senior police officer who was part of the investigation said. 

Muniraju, however, failed to repay them even after several months. The brothers got angry and gave him a week to repay. But Muniraju defaulted again. This time, the brothers threatened to go to the police if he didn’t pay up. Muniraju asked for some more time and started avoiding them.

The brothers ran out of patience and decided to teach him a lesson. On February 29, they spotted him near Sunkadakatte. They went up to him, bundled him into a mini goods vehicle and drove to a far-off place near their hometown, Bagepalli, and beat him black and blue. Muniraju was then confined to the goods vehicle, the officer said. 

The same night, the brothers called up his wife, Pavithra, and asked her to pay up Rs three lakh or they would kill him. In order to avoid being recognised by Pavithra, they got their parents to speak to her and make the ransom demand.

A panicked Pavithra went to the Kamakshipalya police station. The police registered a case and swung into action. Suspecting the brothers, the police questioned their landlord in Electronics City. He told the police that the brothers were from Bagepalli town in Chikkaballapur district. The police started tracking their mobile phone numbers. They learnt that the call received by Pavithra originated in Tadipatri town in Anantapur district.

The police went there and caught Kalyan who told them Muniraju was held hostage in Bagepalli and Maruthi was watching him. The police went to Bagepalli and rescued Muniraju. They also arrested the brothers.