The Chickballapur Rural police nabbed a gang of eight involved in kidnapping businessmen for ransom. The gang was involved in kidnapping former Minister Varthur Prakash and Ashwath Narayana Gowda, a civil contractor based in Hassan, a close aide of former Minister and JD(S) MLA H.D. Revanna in October 2023.
After being arrested in the Varthur Prakash kidnap case, the gang had come out on bail, jumped bail to continue targeting businessmen and realtors and abducted them for extortion, Superintendent of Police Kushal Chouksey said. The gang was also involved in the kidnap and murder of 48-year-old financier and autorickshaw driver Vijay Kumar from Indiranagar in July 2021.
In the last two months, two cases of kidnap for ransom were reported in Chickballapur. Probing these two cases, the district police nabbed this gang. In both cases, the accused extorted ransom from the victims โ โน18 lakh and โน60 lakh, adding up to โน78 lakh.
Modus operandi
The prime accused Barkathulla, 44, a petty businessman hatched a plan and roped in Rohith and gang to execute the job. As per the plan Bharkathulla called the victim on the pretext of discussing a business deal, where the accused abducted him and forced him to call his friends seeking money. The accused threatened the victim not to speak about his abduction and asked him to hand over the cash to their associate, while they were on the move in a car with the victim until they got the ransom of โน60 lakh. Using the same modus operandi, the accused abducted another businessman and extorted โน18 lakh, the police said.
The accused have been identified as Lohith Kumar R., 30, Praveen Nepali, 21, Santosh s/o Muniyappa, 28, Flipkart delivery boy Bharath Kumar Nayak, 26, water tanker driver Maruthi Prasanna, 25, cab driver Venkatesh Annappa, 30, and Maru Mallappa, 28.
