The arrested persons were identified as Satish (28), Victoria (24), Saranya (28) and Ganga Devi (50) from Korattur. All of them were arrested during a vehicle check on Maduranthagam-Vedanthangal road.

The victim Muthukumar (50), a tiles shop owner, was kidnapped by a nine-member gang in a car when he was returning home after closing his shop near the Pakkam junction around 7.30 pm on June 30. His family received a call from the kidnappers, who demanded Rs 10 lakh as ransom. They threatened to kill Muthukumar if the family members approached the police.

The next day, Muthukumar’s family members arranged the cash and placed the money at a spot near the Pakkam railway station as asked by the kidnappers. After picking up the money, the gang dropped Muthukumar in the Melmaruvathur forest area with his hands and legs tied.

Muthukumar was later brought home by his family, following which he filed a police complaint.

While tracing the mobile phone signals, police identified one of the accused as Sathish from Padappai. When they rushed to his home, they found him missing. However, he was later arrested along with Victoria, Saranya and Ganga Devi.

Upon interrogation, police found that Victoria and Saranya were the two wives of the main accused, Gunasekaran, while Ganga Devi was his mother.

“Sathish worked as a carpenter and he used to do wood work for Gunasekaran (27) in Korattur for the past three years. Gunasekaran used to pay him lavishly and used to brainwash him to join in his business which he eventually agreed to,” a police official said.

On June 29, Gunasekaran took Sathish to Muthukumar’s tiles shop along with his two wives and mother on the pretext of buying tiles and planned the kidnapping.

As per the plan, on the day of the incident, Sathish, Gunasekaran and his wives and mother went in a car along with Anil Kumar, Suresh, Ezhumalai and Ravi who were on two motorbikes and blocked Muthukumar’s car. Brandishing knives and other weapons, the gang kidnapped the businessman, police said.

After the arrest of Satish and the three women, police are hunting for the other five including main suspect Gunasekaran.