Kidnapped lorry owner rescued, 6 held

Sources said that Basheer Ahamed (48), a resident of Chettimandapam near Kumbakonam, who owns a fleet of lorries, had rented one of his trucks to one Sekar (45) for transporting liquor from a factory in Mannargudi to Ramanathapuram. Recently, while the lorry was passing with liquor load near Ramanathapuram, it suddenly overturned. Basheer, who went to the spot, collected the liquor bottles that were intact and brought them to Nannilam after convincing Sekar to inform the officials that all the bottles had broken in the accident. 

At Nannilam, Basheer was selling the liquor bottles. Nannilam police, who got a tip off about the sale of bottles, rushed to the spot and seized the liquor bottles from Basheer. Police also registered a case against him. 

Sekar, who came to know about the liquor sale racket, approached Basheer and demanded Rs 10 lakh as share. But Basheer refused to give him the money. Irked by this, Sekar with the help of his aides, Parameshwaran (37), Swaminathan (42), Kannadasan (36), Abdul Kuthoos (37) and Kavideepan (24), all from Mannargudi, kidnapped Basheer on April 13. Later, the gang contacted Ashma Begam, wife of Basheer, and demanded a ransom of Rs 10 lakh. However, Ashma Begam approached the Kumbakonam police. Police located the gang and rescued Basheer from a secluded place at Karakottai near Mannargudi. All the six persons, including Sekar, were arrested.