CHENNAI: Royala Nagar police arrested 5 persons for kidnapping two college students, demanding payment for the damage to the car they rented from a man.

The accused were identified as K Venkatesan (39), B Bhoopathy (27), N Santhosh Kumar (26), M Dinesh Kumar (30), and M Sarath (22).

According to police, two students of a private college in Ramapuram-hired a car for a rent of Rs 20,000 from Venkatesan. After taking the car for a trip, they returned on Tuesday.

The duo had gone out of town and returned on Tuesday evening. Police said that there was damag to the car as they were involved in a minor accident and the students returned the car to Venkatesan without repairing the damage.

Irate over this, Venkatesan went to the duo’s college on Wednesday night with his friends and confronted them. After an argument, the gang forced the two students into a car and took off.

Venkatesan allegedly called the brother of one of the students and demanded Rs 3 lakh for the damages. The brother approached the police after which a search hunt was launched. Tracing the mobile phone of Venkatesan, a police team apprehended the gang and rescued the students from them.

They were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.

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