Man kidnapped, assaulted for taking away girlfriend’s phone

G Vasavi (20), who is settled in the US with parents and is a student of psychology there, often visits Chennai to participate in badminton tournaments. K Navith Ahmed (21), on the other hand, is a student B.Com in Loyola College and lives in Kilpauk. The couple had met via common friends two years ago.

They developed a relationship and Navith’s family wanted them to get them married. “So, the couple met whenever Vasavi visited Chennai,” said an officer.

On May 6, Vasavi came to Chennai and stayed at a hotel on Harrington Road in Kilpauk. The next day she met Navith at a park in Anna Nagar and an argument broke out between them during which Navith allegedly snatched her phone and hit her on her head with a helmet.

Two days later, when Navith was returning home on a bike around 11.15 pm on Thursday, he was intercepted by a three men gang. Two of them threatened him at knife point and took his bike away. “They then made him sit in between two of them on their bike while the third person followed them on another two-wheeler. They took him to Mogappair and Madhavaram and then to Jafferkhanpet,” said the officer.

They allegedly assaulted him in a bush and robbed him of a wristwatch worth Rs 15,000 and his mobile phone worth Rs 25,000. They also demanded a ransom of Rs 2 lakh to release him. But since Navith’s friends were not ready to pay the money at night, the men fled, leaving him behind. It was only early in Friday that informed managed to inform his parents about the incident and a formal complaint was lodged at the T P Chathiram police station.

The police traced the two-wheeler used in the kidnap and identified the suspect as S Bhaskar (26), a resident of Velachery and son of woman head constable Sasthirakani in Vadapalani All-women police station. Investigations revealed that it was Vasavi who had sent the men them to retrieve her phone from Navith.

Vasavi was also detained for interrogation. However, she was let off as she was not involved in the kidnap and assault.

Based on Bhaskar’s inputs, one more suspect Saravanan, also a Velachery, who works at a textile showroom in Phoneix Market City, was nabbed. They were remanded in judicial custody on Saturday.

The police are looking for one more suspect who has been identified as Basha from Velachery.