Kidnap victim raises alarm at Akkarai signal, traffic cop jumps into rescue
On Friday evening, Dharmaraj was walking on Avvai Street in Tirumangalam when he was bundled up inside a van. The abductors took Dharmaraj to Kovalam and kept him there the whole night. The next morning, when they were taking Dharmaraj to another location on East Coast Road (ECR), he raised an alarm when the car stopped at a traffic signal.
Five kidnappers got arrested
CHENNAI: Traffic policemen on duty at the Akkarai traffic signal near Neelankarai on the East Coast Road rescued a man after he cried for help from a car, engineering his rescue from his abductors and their eventual arrest.
The city police arrested five persons on kidnapping and assault charges.
The victim, Dharmaraj (31) of Sevvapet, Tiruvallur district, runs a home appliances service centre at Tirumangalam.
On Friday evening, Dharmaraj was walking on Avvai Street in Tirumangalam when he was bundled up inside a van. The abductors took Dharmaraj to Kovalam and kept him there the whole night. The next morning, when they were taking Dharmaraj to another location on East Coast Road (ECR), he raised an alarm when the car stopped at a traffic signal.
Traffic Sub Inspector Dharmalingam, who was on duty, intercepted the vehicle, and two of them managed to flee. Meanwhile, five others, along with Dharmaraj, were secured and handed over to the Neelankarai police. The personnel probed them and then alerted the Tirumangalam police personnel.
After investigations, the police arrested Sriji (30) of Old Pallavaram, Premkumar (36) and Venugopal (30) of Zamin Pallavaram, Yuvaraj (36) of Vanagaram, and Anand (25) of Manapakkam.
Probe revealed that the arrested persons had lent money to Dharmaraj to invest in a financial firm to compound their investment, but Dharmaraj did not provide any returns, after which they ganged up and kidnapped him.
Anand and Venugopal have previous criminal cases, police said. The arrested persons were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.