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Bangalore techies arrested for kidnapping racket
Published on Sat, Jun 07, 2008 at 20:17, Updated on Sat, Jun 07, 2008 at 20:31 in 
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Bangalore: The Bangalore police have arrested a gang of six people, three of whom are techies for allegedly running a kidnapping and extortion racket.
Although it is difficult to imagine well heeled software professionals taking to crime for cash, however, Mahendra Gupta, a businessman, is demonstrating how a bunch of batteries were stuck to his back when he was taken away in a car in mid-March.
Gupta was accosted by six people on the pretext of a business deal. Armed with a knife they threatened him, saying they would blow him off with a remote control if he didn't hand over a ransom of Rs 15 lakh.
“I said I would give you whatever balance is there. I said I would withdraw money in front of you. I won't give any symptom of being kidnapped. I gave a cheque of Rs 2.5 lakh. They said you go to the bank and withdraw money. They said their people were there and they would blast me. So I withdrew money for them,” says victim, Mahendra Gupta.
Among the six arrested are Muniram and Sandesh, both engineering graduates working in private firms and Bharat Amla, who runs a network consultancy company.
“The victims were sent to collect money from whatever source, maybe bank or relatives and in the process they've already collected Rs 4 lakh,” says Joint commissioner (Crime), Gopal Hosur.
“They were inspired by the movie Speed and got the idea to do this from that,” says Police Commissioner, Bangalore, Achuta Rao.
The police may have cracked a unique spate of kidnap and extortion cases, but it's obvious that a fear of bombs and explosives is gaining ground at a time when terror is an accepted reality.
Police say at least three such cases have been reported in the last three months. The victims were so scared about a bomb attack that they handed over money willingly and one of them didn't even lodge a complaint.
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