Four arrested for faking abduction to extort money

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: In a swift action, Bommanahalli Police arrested four persons including a youth for faking his own abduction in order to extort money from his aunt in the city.

The prime accused was identified as Jeevan while his friends were identified by the police as Vinay, Raju and Purnesh.

"Around 8:40 pm on March 11, a woman had approached the police station and filed a case alleging that her nephew, Jeevan, was kidnapped by a gang who had demanded Rs 1 lakh as ransom to release him," an official from Bommanahalli Police Station told News Trail.

Launching a probe, the police zeroed in on the accused and nabbed the accused including Jeevan, within fourand-a-half hours.

It was learnt that Jeevan's aunt, Sunanda, works at a private college in Bengaluru where Jeevan works as a warden. However Jeevan had become addicted to online gambling and had recently lost a lot of money in the betting on Gold369 app.

Desperately in need of money, Jeevan along with his friends had faked his own kidnapping and clicked photos of himself with red sauce on his face and clothes, pretending to have been beaten up by a gang.

Jeevan shared these photos to his aunt requesting her to arrange the ransom amount.

The accused had also shared the same message to his parents after which they transferred Rs 20,000 through UPI application to the given number, the police said. The drama unfolded when the accused were interrogated by the police.