Thoufeeq posed as NIA official to kidnap bizman for Rs 3 cr pay-off

The incident happened in the zero hours of August 17 when Diwan Akbar, who runs a screen printing firm on Portuguese Church Road, was returning home from a friend’s place in Broadway. Four men who reached the spot in a Mahindra Scorpio introduced themselves as NIA officials and asked Diwan Akbar to join them in a car for an inquiry.

After he boarded the vehicle, they proceeded towards Triplicane and one more person got into the vehicle on Bells Road. Upon reaching the ECR, Diwan Akbar was blindfolded and a few minutes later he was confined in a room and thrashed.

According to the victim, after videographing his statement that he was involved in drug peddling, they told him that senior officials have given permission to kill him and demanded Rs 3 crore to let him go. Diwan Akbar was asked to call his family to get the money ready and after his brother Thamimun Ansari managed to get Rs 2 crore on August 18, he was asked to give it to a man near the Albert Theatre. After the kidnappers got the money around 8.30 pm, they took Diwan Akbar’s passport, debit cards and house keys as collateral for the remaining Rs 1 crore and dropped him at Parry’s Corner around 10.30 pm with two days to pay up rest of the ransom.

Based on his complaint, Muthialpet police registered a case and arrested Uma Maheshwaran of T Nagar and Albert of Ariyalur. Two mobile phones and Rs 6.40 lakh were seized.

Meanwhile, even as Chennai police maintained that they are yet to arrest Thoufeeq, Tiruchy police secured his wife, Salma, a 30-year-old Bangladesh national, who was staying for more than six months with a baby at Manikandam in Tiruchy.

Salma reportedly told Tiruchy police that she managed to cross Bangladesh and reached West Bengal and had boarded a train from there to Chennai. After staying briefly in Chepauk in Chennai and Athirampattinam in Thanjavur, she reached Tiruchy with the help of one Mohammed Yasim from Chennai and was residing at Kandasamy Udayar Street in Manikandam for the past six months.

She also told police that her husband Thoufeeq left home five days back telling her that he had some work outside and is yet to return. Since she didn’t have any documents to prove her nationality, she has been taken to Chennai for further investigation.