Two brothers from Dombivli, who were allegedly kidnapped while on a business trip in Malaysia, were released and reached home on Friday.
Kaustubh (36) and Rohan Vaidya (31), who run a frozen fish business, left for Malaysia on August 1 to meet a business associate. They landed on August 2 and checked into a hotel, after which they finished some business meetings. They were also scheduled to meet a new associate called Kevin Lak Kins the same day, and accordingly left in a BMW car sent by Mr. Kins in the evening.
Around 45 minutes after they left, their car was intercepted by another one in a forest area. They were both assaulted and forced into the second car by a group of men, who bound and blindfolded them and took them to an unfamiliar location.
“The kidnappers were speaking in a language that sounded like Tamil to us. Our hands were bound at all times and we were only given water and minimum food,” Rohan recalled, speaking to the media during a press interaction at their Dombivli home on Saturday.
On August 3, the kidnappers made the brothers call their family and demanded ₹1 crore as ransom. However, the kidnappers were confused as to how the money should be delivered to them.
After some discussion, they called the brothers’ father again and gave him a phone number, saying that the person on the other end would give him the details of a bank account to which the money should be sent. Their father, however, could not reach the number.
Meanwhile, the kidnappers, using the brothers’ debit cards, withdrew ₹67,466 in multiple transactions.
“Back home, our family informed the Kuala Lumpur crime branch. The High Commissioner of the Kuala Lumpur police called up our number to speak to the kidnappers, which made them panic. We were again assaulted on August 4, and on August 6, we were forced into a car and dropped off near Singapore in the evening. We made our way back to our hotel, and the hotel authorities informed the local police,” Kaustubh said.
The police in turn informed the Ministry of External Affairs in India. On Friday, the brothers were picked up from their hotel, taken to the airport and put on a flight to India, which landed at 12.15 p.m.
The brothers said the local police are working on identifying and apprehending the kidnappers.