Youth fakes own kidnap, seeks Rs 5L ransom from mom

On Wednesday, Choolaimedu police received a phone call from one Sulekha from Malaysia. She informed police that her son Imran, 25, who was in the city for business, was kidnapped for a ransom of Rs 50 lakh. When police rushed to the house where Imran was staying his friends there told police that Imran was taken away by three unidentified men.

Since the house was under the jurisdiction of the Aminjikarai police station, the local police took over the investigation and launched a hunt for the kidnappers. However, to the cops’ surprise, Imran himself appeared at the station and clarified that he was not kidnapped.

Investigation revealed that Imran had borrowed Rs 5 lakh from a friend for his eatery business and did not return it. They together decided to get money from Imran’s mother and staged the kidnap. Police, however, let Imran off since his mother withdrew her complaint.

In the Ambattur incident, the accused Shanmugam was a kin of victim Rajeshwaran and had been staying at the latter’s house, said police.

On Thursday, Rajeshwaran, an advocate, received a call claiming Shanmugam had been kidnapped and would be released on payment of Rs 10 lakh. Rajeshwaran complained to Ambattur police who traced the callers with the mobile phone location where Shanmugam, along with a friend Ravi, was found inebriated.

It turned out that Rajeshwaran received Rs 20 lakh as compensation for his son’s death three years ago and Shanmugam wanted to grab it. He staged a kidnap along with Ravi but ended up behind the bars as both were remanded in judicial custody.