<![CDATA[The Sampigehalli police, on Saturday, arrested a gang of four that had kidnapped a 70-year-old financier and former BBMP councillor from Yelahanka and extorted a ransom of Rs.60 lakh from his son. During his walk on Friday morning, Mr. Mallikarjunappa was kidnapped at gunpoint by three men in Maruthi Nagar. He later told the police that they had forced him into a car and driven away. They used his mobile phone to call his son, Ravikumar, to demand a ransom for Rs.100 crore for his safe return. “They warned him not to alert the police. Ravikumar managed to convince the gang that he did not have that much money and and agreed to pay Rs.60 lakh,” the police told. The kidnappers told Dr. Ravikumar to come to the outskirts of the city in Hoskote with the money. He followed instructions and was reunited with his father after he paid the men Rs.60 lakh in cash. The father and son then immediately approached the police and filed a complaint. A special team, headed by Mr. Mohammed Humayun Nagte, Assistant Commissioner of Police, (Sampigehalli sub-division) started tracing the gang based on the statements by Mallikarjunappa and Ravikumar. After identifying the vehicle used and their mobile phones, the police arrested Kantharaj Gowda, 30, a realtor; and his associates Renuka Prasad, 41, Arshiya, 32, and Pradeep, 27. “The accused are in the real estate business and wanted to make quick money,” the police told. Incidentally, Kantharaj Gowda was arrested last year while trying to exchange old currency notes in Ashok Nagar, but got out on bail. According to the police, it was Arshiya who proposed that they kidnap Mallikarjunappa. The police also recovered Rs.1.04 crore in cash and a pistol with six live cartridges from the accused, who have been taken into police custody.]]>
