CHENNAI: City Police on Thursday arrested three persons including a wholesale egg trader who kidnapped an auto driver from his house in Choolaimedu to settle a financial dispute.

The auto driver, C Chandrasekaran (46) was at his home at Sakthi Nagar 4th street, Choolaimedu when a gang trespassed into his house on Thursday morning. After assaulting him, they bundled Chandrasekaran into a car and also took his auto.

A relative who lives nearby who noticed Chandrasekaran's struggle alerted the police after which Choolaimedu police conducted investigations. Based on the description of the vehicle and by analysing CCTV footage, police traced the vehicle to Koyambedu and a team rescued Chandrasekaran from a hideout there.

Subsequently, Choolaimedu Police arrested P Saravanakumar (40) of Pammal, his brother, P Devarajan (39) of Namakkal district and K Karthik of Rasipuram, Namakkal district.

Investigations revealed that Chandrasekaran used to run a shop in Zam Bazaar, selling eggs to restaurants and eateries. Saravanakumar too ran a similar business and his brother, Devarajan was selling eggs wholesale in Namakkal district.

Chandrasekaran had bought eggs for Rs 8 lakh from the brothers and had delayed in paying them back. One fine day, he shut his shop and went absconding and shifted to a relative's house in Choolaimedu and started riding an autorickshaw, police investigations revealed.

On learning of Chandrasekaran's whereabouts, the brothers plotted to kidnap and get back the money they are owed. All three were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.