Man denied loan kidnaps engineer

The South East division police on Thursday nabbed a gang of six men and rescued a 52-year-old mechanical engineer who had been allegedly kidnapped for a ₹1 crore ransom.

Shivakumar, employee of a multinational company and brother-in-law of the late Kannada film actor Vajramuni, was abducted from his house in Singasandra on Sunday morning. The kidnappers approached him on the pretext of seeking guidance. According to the police, they asked him to step out of the house for a quick discussion. When he obliged, they shoved him into a car and drove away.

A few hours later, Shivakumar's wife received a call from the kidnappers demanding ₹1 crore for his safe release. His family filed a complaint with the Parappana Agrahara police, who formed special teams to track him down.

Boralingaiah M.B., Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East division), said they got information from mobile towers and analysed footage from hundreds of CCTV cameras. After following up on a few leads, they got the registration number of the car used by the kidnappers.

They traced the car to Kolar. A team went to Kolar and spotted the kidnappers. Shivakumar was in the car with his captors. After a brief chase, they cornered the vehicle and rescued the victim.

The accused have been identified as Satyavelachari, 24, a resident of Taverekere, and his five associates Yeshwanth Yadav, 20, Vinod Kumar, 21, Sanjay Reddy, 20, Shekhar, 20, and Jagannath, 23.

“Investigations revealed that Satyavelachari is an interior decorator who knows Shivakumar. When he learnt that Shivakumar had sold his ancestral property, he sought a loan. On being refused, Satyavelachari plotted to kidnap him,” said the police.