The Bengaluru Police on Sunday arrested a 32-year-old man for allegedly abducting his 13-year-old cousin and demanding a ransom of Rs 50 lakh. The Banaswadi police, who nabbed Moin Khan, rescued the boy within 12 hours of receiving the ransom call.
Moin Khan was allegedly upset with his father and uncle for not allowing him to take over management of running their family restaurant. An aspiring hotelier, Moin Khan allegedly decided to set up his own business with the ransom money, TOI reported.
The Banaswadi Police arrested Moin Khan and two autorickshaw drivers, Ayaz (35) and Mubarak (30) for allegedly assisting Moin in the abduction. The little boy is the son of Javed Ali, Moin’s uncle.
At around 2.30 pm on Saturday, allegedly upon Moin’s instructions, Ayaz and Mubarak drove a car and stopped at the street where the boy’s house is located. While he was playing outside, Ayaz and Mubarak allegedly asked him the directions to the family restaurant and asked the boy if he would guide them. The boy allegedly got into the car and the duo took him to a house in KG Halli, The Hindu reported.
Ayaz and Mubarak then called Javed Ali and informed him that his son had been kidnapped and demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh, The Hindu reported.
Banaswadi Police say that Javed Ali initially disregarded the phone call as a prank and did not believe Ayaz and Mubarak. However, a few minutes after the phone call, Javed received a message on WhatsApp, which contained the picture of his son and a ransom demand. The message also instructed Javed to pay the ransom of Rs 50 lakh within 12 hours.
An unsuspecting Javed reached out to Moin Khan for help and the duo went to Banaswadi Police Station and filed a complaint.
“The accused was trying to mislead the investigation. To divert us from suspecting him, he kept misleading the probe,” Banaswadi police told TNM.
The Banaswadi Police formed three teams under ACP Ravi Prasad and began checking Javed’s call record details. After finding the number, they extracted call records of the abductors’ phones and found that they were in touch with someone within the police station,” The Hindu reported.
The Banaswadi police immediately took Moin Khan into custody and began interrogating him on the suspicion that he contracted the abduction. By 5.30 pm, Moin had given up the boy’s location to the police. The Banaswadi Police reached the spot in KG Halli, where the boy was held captive. Mubarak allegedly tried to assault the cops when they opened fire and injured his leg.
According to the TOI report, Moin’s father and Javed had allegedly refrained from handing over the responsibility of running the business to Moin. He allegedly promised Rs 3 lakh to Ayaz and Mubarak and had decided to open his own restaurant with the ransom money.
Moin allegedly offered the names of Javed’s rivals by giving the police information about former employees of the restaurant, who may have held a grudge against Javed. Moin, Ayaz and Mubarak have been booked under sections 359 (kidnapping), 186 (obstructing a public servant from performing duty) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.