Four kidnap youth to extort money, arrested

The incident happened when two friends — Thirumalai (27) of Panderikollai, a tribal village in Anaicut panchayat union, and Santhanam (27) of Ongapadi in the same PU — who were working in a private company in Coimbatore, came home for the holidays. When they were on their way to Ongapadi to consume liquor, they were stopped by a gang that came in a car which then assaulted 

Thirumalai demanding the Rs 2 lakh he had received from them. The gang then kidnapped Thirumalai and left. 

A scared Santhanam then contacted Karthi, another friend, and both went to the Anaicut police station from where they were directed to the Veppankuppam police station as the incident occurred in that police station’s limit. 

When they were complaining, Karthi received a call on his mobile from the kidnappers demanding Rs 2 lakh as ransom. On the orders of the police, he continued to talk and bargaining resulted in the amount being reduced to Rs 10,000. The gang then asked Santhanam to bring the money without informing the police to Shenbakkam on outskirts of Vellore town. 

When Santhanam went to the location, a gang member brought 

Thirumalai on a two-wheeler and after offloading him tried to flee with the cash but was caught by the cops on the wait. He was identified as Srinivasan (24) of Vellore and based on his interrogation, three others — Sakthi (19), Bragadesh (21) and Vignesh (23) — who were waiting for the money on the Vallimalai Road were also arrested. A probe is underway to find out if the gang was involved in similar incidents elsewhere. Police are also searching for four more gang members. It was also revealed that Thirumalai was picked as a victim randomly and that the gang members did not know him.