A 36-year-old software engineer was abducted, kept captive for 12 hours and released only after he paid his five abductors Rs 17.5 lakh which he arranged by calling on his friends. The abductors also drove away with the car he was driving after forcibly obtaining his signature on ownership change documents.
Jita Mitra, from Andhra Pradesh, revealed his abductors had threatened him with a knife during the ordeal which began at around 7.30pm on Thursday and that he even suffered knife injuries to his left hand. In his complaint to the Hebbal police, Mitra, who works for a private firm out of its Manyata Tech Park office, said he was driving back to his residence in Anand Nagar, Hebbal, east Bengaluru when he was accosted and abducted.
Police have registered a complaint and have formed a team to nab the abductors.
Mitra told police he was approaching 5th Main near Atria College in Anand Nagar when another car rammed into his. Five people alighted from the other vehicle and they demanded that he pay them Rs 1,000 to repair their car.
When Mitra refused to pay since the fault wasn’t his, the men bundled him into their car and drove towards the Hebbal flyover, abandoning Mitra’s car — of Hyundai make, which he had locked — at the spot.
“They later admitted that I was not at fault for the accident and that they had abducted me for ransom,” Mitra says. He claims the men drove around in circles for the rest of the night while they forced him to arrange for the money they demanded.
“They asked me to call my friends for help,” he said. “They refused to give me the phone until I told them who I was calling.” After he convinced the gang that he wasn’t calling the police, Mitra was allowed to call his close friends Wasim and Prabhu.
In his complaint, Mitra said Wasim delivered Rs 8.5 lakh at a meeting point near Mehkri Circle around 11.30pm and, after the gang demanded more, handed over another Rs 2.5 lakh at a rendezvous in Jayamahal. Meanwhile, Prabhu had arranged Rs 6.5 lakh which he gave to the gang around 8am on Friday.
Mitra said the gang let him out of their car at Mehkri Circle, close to Hebbal, shortly later, but only after they forced him to sign documents to transfer ownership his car. Mitra says he then went to a private hospital nearby where doctors attended to the wounds in his left arm. He then approached the Hebbal police around 2.30pm.
Three of his abductors were called Yuvaraj, Salman and Sagar which he learnt during their conversations with each other, Mitra said. Police have named the three in the FIR and have registered a case of abduction, assault and criminal conspiracy against the gang.
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