3 arrested for kidnap, release of financier after taking Rs 1 croew

Hyderabad: A day after a 40-year-old automobile financier Gajendra Parekh was kidnapped and released for a ransom of Rs 1 crore, the city police arrested three of the alleged abductors on Tuesday. Two more suspects are still at large.

Cash totalling Rs 35.30 lakh and two cars were seized from the accused, the police said. The victim was abducted in a car when he went to meet his friends.

The kidnappers threatened to kill him if he did not part with Rs 3 crore and beat him up badly. The financier bargained with them and he called one of his friends for arranging the money and after handing over Rs 1 crore, the accused released him. Later, he lodged a police complaint.

The prime accused, identified as Mohammed Almas, was into second-hand car-selling, and he planned the kidnapping of the financier for ransom and took the help of the other accused to carry out the plan, the police said. The kidnappers initially demanded Rs 3 crore and then agreed to accept Rs 1 crore, which they had distributed among themselves, the police said.

Central Zone Task Force police arrested the accused. According to City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar, the accused were identified as Mohammed Almas (21), a car dealer, Mohammed Akbar (22), a student and Mir Shafeeq Ali (19), unemployed youth.

All are residents of Old City. The police said Gajandra Parekh was in fact the friend of Almas for the last four years. He used to purchase seized cars from Gajandra Parekh.

He came to know that Gajendra's brother had alleggedly cheated a company, named Fortune Finance, to a tune of Rs 40 crore. On finding that Gajendra had a huge turnover, Almas hatched a plan to kidnap the former for ransom.