The city police on Monday arrested a gang of five which allegedly kidnapped a software engineer from Bengaluru and held him in a city hotel in an effort to force him to sell his ancestral property worth ₹50 crore in Adambakkam. The gang demanded ransom of ₹10 crore from his family.
Thulasivamsi Krishna, 37, a software professional living in Bengaluru, had been visiting Chennai in the last two years to sell his ancestral property measuring 40,497 square feet in Thiruvalluvar Nagar, Adambakkam. He inherited the property after his father’s death.
Last year, Balaji of VAK Agencies in Saligramam, and his associate Prabakar approached Mr. Krishna to discuss the sale of the property. The duo, along with 10 others, abducted him and confined him to a room. The abductors allegedly grabbed the original property documents from Mr. Krishna. On December 22 last year, they forcibly made him sign on general power of attorney documents at the Sub-Registrar Office in Alandur favouring Balaji and released him.
However, the accused were not able to register the document because of some inaccuracies. The gang again kidnapped Mr. Krishna from Bengaluru and held him at two hotels in K.K. Nagar and Koyambedu for a month. The gang demanded ₹10 crore from the family or wanted them to execute a sale deed in favour of Balaji in exchange for Mr. Krishna, said police sources.
On Saturday, Ruba, Mr. Krishna’s mother, lodged a complaint with Joint Commissioner of Police (South) K.S. Narenthiran Nair. A special team, headed by Virugambakkam police inspector Thomson George Xavier, rounded up the accused in Koyambedu and rescued Mr. Krishna on Sunday.
Police arrested M. Balamurugan alias Balaji, 43, of Saligramam; Selvanesan, alias Selvam alias Speed Selva, 49, of Pallikaranai; T. Johnson,45 of Kodambakkam; T. Tirumurugan, 23 of Madurai; and G. Suresh, 30, of Alwarthirunagar. A car, nine mobile phones and a knife were recovered from them. The police said Ms. Ruba’s son-in-law tried to sell the property with the gang’s help.
