Hyderabad cops arrest 4 men for kidnapping make-up artist, rescue victim

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad police arrested four kidnappers on Friday in connection with the kidnapping of a make-up artist from Banjara Hills and rescued the victim.

The arrested have been identified as V. Kumara Guru, S. Jagadish, Paluru Lokesh Kumar, P.K. Ganesh Kumar, and Keerthana, all residents of Chennai.

On February 25, Kyanteen Kalapana Reddy, the victim's wife, lodged a complaint at the Banjara Hills police station. She claimed that at 9 a.m that morning her husband K. Amarnath Reddy, as usual, went to his office in Madhapur in his car.

At about 1:20 p.m she received a call from her husband. However, it was an unknown person who spoke and claimed he had kidnapped Amarnath. He demanded Rs. 4 lakhs as ransom which was to be deposited in one of the accused Pradeep's account.

They called her repeatedly and demanded she deposit the ransom before 5 p.m and threatened to take her husband to Chennai and kill him. Later, she spoke to her husband who said seven persons had kidnapped him from Madhapur. He told her they were threatening to kill him if he did not pay the money. He told her to immediately arrange for the same and send it to Pradeep's account.

A special police team arranged for the cash and sent a photo of the same from the complainant's cell phone to the kidnappers. The latter asked Kalapana to come to Srinagar Colony in Banjara Hills along with the cash at 6:30 p.m. The police laid a trap and caught Paluru Lokesh Kumar while Pradeep escaped. During interrogation Lokesh revealed the cell phone numbers of the other kidnappers and the police traced them and found that they were travelling from Hyderabad via Nalgonda towards Chennai.

Immediately, the Madugulapally police station in Nalgonda was alerted and they apprehended the other three kidnappers Kumara Guru, Jagadish, and Ganesh Kumar.

During the interrogation, the police found that Junaid and Anu, residents of Chennai, had cheated Amarnath's friend, a resident of Bangalore, to the tune of Rs. 13.5 lakhs. Amarnath had approached Pradeep, Kumara Guru, and Lokesh and requested them to settle the matter with Junaid and recover the money.

Amarnath had lodged a complaint at the High Road police station in Bangalore with the help of Kumara Guru against Junaid and Anu. He had agreed to give Rs. 4 lakhs to the accused persons. The Bangalore police had managed to recover Rs. 10 lakhs. Amarnath received the money but did not give Rs. 4 lakhs to the accused persons as promised and has instead left for Hyderabad.

The kidnappers tried contacting Amarnath but he gave evasive replies. So, they hatched a plan to recover the money from him and kidnapped him.