BENGALURU: Acting swiftly on a tip-off about the abduction of three people by a gang of eight for ransom, Hulimavu police rescued the victims within 15 minutes Saturday night and recovered over Rs 1 crore from the miscreants.The gang had abducted an Akshayanagar couple – Motaram and his wife Lakshmi Devi – along with cab driver Hemanth near Yelenahalli.The arrested gang members are Narasimha alias Lakshmi Narasimha (34) from JP Nagar; Jeevan (27) and Ravi Kiran alias Kiran (33) from Begur; Kishore M alias Lakshmi (30) from Hillalige village near Chandapura; Venkataraju alias Minash (28) from Chandapura; Chandiran alias Chandra (33) from Rajagopal Garden at Kalasipalya; Kumar N (36) from Hinnaki village in Anekal; and Naman (18) from Yelenahalli. The accused are cab drivers, security guards, a milk vendor, and autorickshaw drivers. Two of them, Kishore and Venkataraju, are involved in murder cases, and the cases are under trial.Motaram received Rs 1 crore in a banking transaction and another Rs 1 crore in cash after he sold 14 guntas of land in Anekal taluk recently. He allegedly wanted to give Rs 1 crore in cash in a hawala transaction to an areca nut trader in Tumakuru, identified as Mohan. Cab driver Hemanth (32), who is Mohan’s nephew, went to collect the cash from Motaram Saturday. Motaram, who was driving an SUV, and his wife met Hemanth around 6.15pm and asked him to follow them to a place nearby. There, the couple showed Hemanth two bags containing the cash on the rear seat.At the same time, two unknown persons approached Motaram’s SUV and attempted to open its doors while recording a video of the couple and the cash bags. The duo, Narasimha and Jeevan, claimed they knew about the hawala transaction and demanded a share. They assaulted Hemanth when he tried to question them, attempted to snatch the bags from Devi and argued with Motaram, who managed to get into his SUV, and drive off. However, the miscreants chased the SUV on their motorcycle and intercepted them 200 metres away by hitting their vehicle. They took the couple to a deserted place and Hemanth followed them there.They demanded Rs 10 lakh from Motaram and threatened to complain to police. When Hemanth tried to intervene, they assaulted him again. The duo summoned their friends to the spot and the gang of eight forcibly dragged the cab driver and the couple into a shed, snatched their mobile phones, and demanded Rs 10 lakh for their release. Motaram asked the gang to call police, saying he was ready to face legal consequences. The gang made Hemanth call Mohan, but he too refused to give them a share. They held the trio captive for two hours, trying to extract money from them. By this time, some gang members took possession of Motaram’s SUV and Rs 1 crore. Swift actionPolice inspector Kumaraswamy BG, of Hulimavu police station, received a tip-off about the incident.Kumaraswamy, along with two police sub-inspectors and other staff, rushed to the spot. The miscreants kept arguing that they were trying to provide information to police and questioned the source of Motaram’s money. As the miscreants confessed later, police arrested them. The cash was recovered intact, and a car and a bike of the miscreants were seized.City police commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh appreciated the team’s work and rewarded them with Rs 20,000 Sunday.
