BENGALURU: Acting swiftly, Yelahanka police on Monday rescued an abducted college student in less than four hours of the kidnapping. Four people, including a tur dal mill owner, were arrested.
DCP (northeast) Anoop A Shetty said the gang kidnapped the 19-year-old student over a financial dispute between his father and the mill owner. They kidnapped the teenager around 12.15pm and he was rescued by 4pm. Police tracked the abductors’ vehicle using its FASTag details and took the help of their Chitradurga counterparts.
The accused are Ramesh Rathod, 43, Rizwan Patel, 23, Indrajit Pawar, 23, and Harish Kumar, 24, all residents of Kalaburagi. The victim is Jagadish, a first-year BBA student with a private college in Yelahanka and from Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh.
Investigation revealed Rathod owns a few mills in Kalaburagi and supplied tur dal in bulk to businessmen. Jagadish’s father Suresh and uncle were among the businessmen who purchased from Rathod. The brothers used to pay for their purchase within a few days. But last year, they bought tur dal worth around Rs 3 crore and did not pay up.
According to police, Jagadish’s uncle had moved to Dubai. Rathod started demanding money from Suresh and also filed a cheating complaint against Suresh and his brother in Kalaburagi. Suresh is said to have refused to return Rathod his money after the police case. Rathod collected details of Suresh’s son studying in a college in Bengaluru and decided to kidnap him and get his money back. Police have summoned Jagadish’s father to verify Rathod’s claims.
Teen’s classmate noted down vehicle number
According to police, Rathod and his gang came to Bengaluru and abducted Jagadish around 12.15pm on Monday from Muneshwaranagar Road, Kattigenahalli. Jagadish lives in a flat with his friends and was on his way there on a motorbike when the abduction took place.
His classmate Yojitha saw him being dragged into a Toyota Innova. She immediately noted down the vehicle’s registration number and informed her classmate and Jagadish’s roommate Indra Reddy about it. A group of students rushed to the spot and informed police about the incident.
DCP Shetty formed a special team headed by assistant commissioner of police (Yelahanka) Manoj Kumar ME and police inspector Balaji. The cops swung into action and traced the vehicle owner with the help of the registration number. They learnt that Rathod had borrowed the car from his friend to visit Bengaluru.
Police collected FASTag details of the vehicle and found that it was moving towards Tumakuru. A police team left the city to chase the vehicle. Meanwhile, learning that the vehicle was moving towards Hiriyur, city police informed their counterparts in Chitradurga.
On realising police were on their trail, the abductors abandoned Jagadish near Sira and began moving towards Kalaburagi. However, Chitradurga cops detained them at Aimangala, near Hiriyur. The suspects confessed and Rathod revealed the reason behind the kidnapping.
Police said the abductors used two SUVs to commit the offence. The authorities have seized the Innova and Rathod’s Toyota Fortuner.
