Extortion plan behind Pulakeshinagar shooting, four held in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: The Pulakeshinagar police have arrested four persons in connection with the shootout in which a businessman was shot at on May 21. Investigations revealed that the accused had planned to kidnap the businessman and demand a ransom of Rs 5 crore.

The accused are - Sheik Jubair (26), a resident of Chelekere near Hennur and a realtor, Mehthab N (27) of RT Nagar, Niyamathulla (19) of KG Halli and Syed lsrar (22) of DJ Halli. Three professional shooters, who were hired from Uttar Pradesh to commit the offence, are still at large and efforts are on to nab them and recover the country made pistol used in the crime.

On May 21 morning, Masood Ali, a resident of Cooke Town  was travelling in his car towards his furniture shop. On Assaye Road, unidentified persons followed Ali’s car in a white colour car, rammed into it a few times. When Ali stopped to question them, the miscreants had tried to push him inside his car forcefully. Sensing danger, Ali started running to escape and one of the miscreants had shot him. He had sustained injuries in the incident.

“Special teams were formed to crack the case and they got information about the accused persons. Further probe revealed that accused, Sheik Zubair, had purchased a flat for his cousin in an apartment built by the victim. He used to visit the victim’s house and learnt he was a wealthy man. He hatched a conspiracy to make huge money by kidnapping him and roped in his friend Mehthab and planned the execution. They decided to demand a ransom of `5 crores from the family members.

Accordingly, they formed a team of 7-8 persons including three professional offender from Uttar Pradesh and watched the movements of the victim for some days by following him daily from his house to his work place. After making all preparation the accused planned to kidnap the complainant on May 23 but failed in the first attempt,” the police said.“Again on May 21, they rented a car, changed its number plate and tried to kidnap him at Assaye Road. Even the second time they failed and ended up firing at him. Based on various clues the four persons were arrested and we recovered the car used in the offence,” the police added.