The city police have nabbed five persons, including a former assistant of a Kannada film actor and a small-time movie actor, on charges of abducting a 19-year old engineering student from Yelahanka New Town.
The arrested were identified as are Muniyappa alias Eshwar (29), Hasan Dhongri (26), Jagadish (32), Jagannatha (19) and Manoj alias Kencha (19).
Ishaan Bapat (19) was abducted by a gang on August 23. Though the gang demanded a ransom, it allegedly released him the next day after police intensified their search.
However, the gang demanded ransom from the teenager’s girlfriend soon after releasing him. “After the girl informed us, a policeman posing as an autorickshaw driver took her to the spot where the gang was waiting. Other policemen were in the locality in the guise of call-taxi drivers,” said N.S. Megharik, Police Commissioner.
The girl acted as if she was arguing with the autorickshaw driver and called accused Hassan Dongri with a request to settle the issue. “When he came, the police team nabbed him and based on the information provided by him, the other four were arrested,” said P.S. Harsha, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Bengaluru North-East).
During interrogation it was found that Muniyappa had acted in a Kannada movie called “Challenger” and during this period, he came in contact with Dongri, assistant of an actor. Muniyappa wanted to produce a movie but since he did not have sufficient money, he started chain snatching and eventually hatched the plan to abduct the 19-year-old, the police officials said.
