Seven arrested on the charge of kidnap, extortion

Police free businessman and his friend from the custody of kidnappers

Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar speaking at a press conference in Mangaluru on Tuesday.

The police have arrested seven persons on the charge of kidnapping a businessman and his friend and extortion and recovered lethal weapons as well as cars from them.

Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar told reporters here on Tuesday that the accused kidnapped businessman Ahmed Ashraf from K.C. Road near Talapady and his friend Javid from Hosangadi near Manjeshwar in neighbouring Kerala on April 22. They demanded from Ashraf’s family ₹25 lakh in cash, documents of 60 cents of land and gold ornaments for their release. Acting on a complaint from Ashraf’s wife to Ullal Police, the police arrested the accused and got the two released.

Mr. Kumar gave the names of the accused as Ahmed Iqbal (33) of Machchampadi in Manjeshwar now residing in Attavar in Mangaluru, M. Yakub (33), Naushad (27) and Ummar Navaf (25) from Machchampady, Shamsheer (30) from Bandyod, Syed Muhammad Kausar (41) from Mangalpady and Sheik Muhammed Riyaz (25) from Uppala.

Three cars, two talwars, one dagger, 120 gm gold ornaments, property documents and 10 mobile phones were recovered from the accused. The main accused Ummar Navaf tested positive for COVID-19 during medical examination and is now under treatment. The others were produced before the jurisdictional court.

Iqbal had reportedly invested up to ₹27 lakh in Ashraf’s MCT Trading Company, MCT Toll Deal, Cryptocurrency and FOREX trading business with the latter promising returns worth three times. Though Ashraf had paid ₹10 lakh to Iqbal, there was delay in paying the balance and as such, the latter planned the kidnap, Mr. Kumar said.

After being unable to engage a henchman from West Asia, Iqbal hired Navaf to execute the task who kidnapped Ashraf from K.C. Road at 1.30 p.m. on April 22 and later, Javid from Hosangadi. The two were kept in a building under construction at Paivalike, before the police swooped down on the accused.

Navaf is facing cases in Ullal, Manjeshwar and Kasaragod in Kerala for several offences, including murder, attempt to murder, dacoity and extortion.