5 held for abducting bizman, main accused still at large

The arrested five — Shiek of MMDA colony Arumbakkam, Nandakumar of Choolaimedu, Srinivasan of Maduravoyal, and Sudhirkumar and Chellapandi — were remanded in judicial custody.

Police said Sudhirkumar played a key role in the abduction, as he was known to the victim S Mohan of West Mambalam, who is running a financing firm, Vinayaga Enterprises in Vadapalani, and worked for him as an agent. It was he who introduced Krishnaraj as Saravanakumar to Mohan and planned the abduction.

The other accused, Chellapandi, who has been working as a security guard at a private bungalow near MGM theme park on East Coast Road (ECR), helped the abductors to house the victims there as hostage. The other three accused have chain snatching cases against them, who recently became friends with Krishnaraj and Sudhir Kumar.

On May 23, when Saravanakumar took the victims – Mohan and his kin Manikkam – on a car in the pretext of meeting the owners of a pharmaceutical company on OMR to discuss extending funds to them, Sudhir Kumar followed them in his car with the other accused.

When they reached Selaiyur, others got down from the car and joined Krishnaraj to threaten and blindfold Mohan and Manikkam, and take them the bungalow on ECR. After seeking Rs one crore as ransom, the gang finally settled for Rs 33 lakh, after which Mohan called his brother Ganesan to hand over the money to a person near CMBT.

The investigation officer told DT Next that Krishnaraj’s background would be known only after he was nabbed.