Man abducted, beaten, forced to transfer money in Bengaluru; four arrested

Bengaluru: The Banashankari police have arrested four people for kidnapping a man and extorting money from him. Officials said the arrests took place on Tuesday.

The arrested suspects are Nihar from Bannerghatta, and Santhosh, Madhu and Manjunath, from JP Nagar. Police have recovered Rs 39,000 from them.

Police said the suspects allegedly kidnapped Nithin Gowda, 28, from Thayagarajnagar, at 6.30 pm on January 24, forced him into an autorickshaw and drove him to a graveyard in JP Nagar.

The gang demanded that Gowda share his phone password.

When he refused, they beat him up. They eventually succeeded in getting him to share the password and transfer Rs 47,000 from his bank account. They also stole his gold chain, weighing 29 grams, worth an estimated Rs 4 lakh.

The FIR stated that the gang members handed Gowda a white envelope and filmed him, threatening that it contained drugs. They warned that if he approached the police, they would claim he was involved in drugs. They let him go around 11.30 pm.

Nihar ran a shop called ‘Samosa Factory’ in Anjanapura, Bannerghatta Road. Nihar and Gowda were considering opening an outlet together.

They had known each other for two years and had a financial relationship. Nihar frequently borrowed money from Gowda, and returned it as well.

Around 20 days ago, Gowda loaned Rs 5,000 to Nihar. But despite repeated phone calls and reminders, he refused to return it.  

On the day of the kidnapping, Nihar asked Gowda to be in Banashankari 2nd Stage, where he said he would return the money, but kidnapped him instead, the police said.