Twelve hours of trauma

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, JUNE 4. It was a traumatic 12 hours for Prashant, a school boy, who was kidnapped for ransom from near his father's office at Gandhinagar in Bangalore on Sunday afternoon.

Narrating his tale of woe, Prashant, who attended a press meet at the Office of Commissioner of Police along with his parents, said he went to his father's office to obtain a form for college admission.

``When I was coming back from there, Ramakrishna, an instructor at the gym I attend, came to me and spoke about an application for a motor vehicle loan he had given to my father,'' Prashant said.

Soon he was forced to get into a vehicle, and before he could realise that he was kidnapped, he was taken to Nelamangala. The kidnappers asked him if he smoked or drank. When he told them that he wanted to go home, they did not respond.

They then took him to Peenya and from there to Maddur, where they asked Prashant to call up his family at Rajajinagar. The venue for the exchange of ransom was fixed at a spot in front of the ISKCON Temple since Prashant told them that his mother was not familiar with the City.

They reached West of Chord Road at night, and went around the area for almost two hours, Prashant said. When the kidnappers saw a Maruti car parked near the area, they panicked and repeatedly asked Prashant about it. They were reassured when he said that neither his friends nor his relatives owned a Maruti car.

This seemed to have satisfied them and they decided to go ahead with the transaction without realising that they were walking into a police trap.

The City police, who have been facing criticism following a series of sensational incidents, including the double murder at a house on Convent Road in Ashoknagar and the murder of a person at a five-star hotel in High Grounds, are elated at having solved the case in less than seven hours after it was brought to their notice.

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