Woman rescued hours after trio pose as cops, kidnap her

The police rescued an elderly woman hours after she was kidnapped, and arrested three persons from Yeshwantpur.

The incident occurred at Muthyalnagar in Yeshwantpur early on Wednesday morning. Three persons Krishna, 33, Vijay Kumar and Srinivas 35, posing as crime branch police asked Vimala Ganesh, 71, to accompany them to the station saying that her daughter-in-law had attempted suicide and her son was in the police station.

Krishna and Srinivas are residents of Muthyalnagar while Vijay Kumar is from Hoskote. Police have also seized a Swift Dzire car used for committing the crime.

According to North Division police, the victim Vimala Ganesh, 71, lived with her two sons Shiva Kumar and Sundar. On Tuesday at 11.30 am, Shiva Kumar received a phone call with the caller telling him that he had won a Bullet bike in a lucky draw.

The caller asked Shiva Kumar to collect a gift voucher from a courier office in Yeshwantpur. An excited Shiva Kumar left on his bike to collect the voucher.

Meanwhile, three persons posing as policemen in plainclothes showed up at Vimala's house and asked her to accompany them to the police station. Vimala asked for their ID card. One of them flipped out his driving licence and showed it to the victim who then agreed to go with them.

After getting into the car, they blindfolded her and took her to a house of one of the accused Kumar in V Nagenahalli in Hebbal, police said.

At around 7 pm, one of the kidnappers called Shiva Kumar and told him his mother had been kidnapped. He demanded Rs 1.5 crore ransom in exchange for her safe release. The caller also warned that his mother will meet a gory end if they approached police.

Wasting no time, the brothers lodged a complaint at Yeshwantpur police station.

Special teams
The police formed special teams to track down the kidnappers. With the last ransom call coming from a tower in V Nagenahalli in Hebbal, around 30 policemen in plainclothes went on the rounds looking for suspicious movement.

At around 4 am, one of the kidnappers Krishna, whose leg was injured, was going around in an autorickshaw to buy food. When police picked him up for questioning, he spilled the beans and took the police to the house where the victim was held hostage.

Police rescued the elderly woman. She was taken for medical examination to a government hospital, where she was declared normal.

Kidnappers knew family
Krishna, the prime accused, knew Shiva Kumar, Sundar and his mother since he lived in the same area, the police added. Shiva Kumar and Sundar owned a factory that manufactured tractor spares and were also into financing. Their sister lives in the US. Krishna knew their family details and thought the brothers would easily arrange the ransom, a senior police officer said. Krishna also knew that Shiva Kumar had recently enrolled for a lucky draw. He used this information to wean Shiva Kumar away from the house.
DH News Service