Vizag kidnapping: MP’s son, wife & auditor kept hostage; rowdy sheeter Hemanth aimed for ransom

Visakhapatnam: The kidnap case of Visakhapatnam MP MVV Satyanarayana’s wife Jyothi, his son Sarat and auditor Gannamani Venkateswara Rao played out like a movie scene with the kidnappers keeping them hostage for about 48 hours.

The Visakhapatnam city police rescued them on Thursday and arrested three members of the kidnapping gang. A preliminary investigation found that they kidnapped the three for ransom. The prime accused, K Venkata Hemanth Kumar, a rowdy sheeter from Bheemili has a long criminal history of 12 cases on him. He was earlier involved in the kidnapping of realtors and murder cases.

Speaking to the media, MVV made it clear that he doesn't have enemies, "I do not know about the accused Hemanth, and has never worked with me. This is just for money that the kidnappers targetted my family," said Vizag MP.

What happened?

On June 13, Tuesday morning, around seven persons entered the house of MP’s son Sarat in Rushikonda and made him hostage. At the time of the incident, his wife was out of the station, and he was alone at home.

“We found that the accused, Hemanth, worked as a subcontractor in the MP’s firm, and was aware of financial transactions. He demanded a ransom amount, which the MP refused to give. They harassed Sarat and looted valuable items such as gold, and watches from the house,” said city police commissioner, CM Trivikram Varma.

Keeping him hostage for a day, they made Sarat call his mother Jyothi (MP’s wife), who lives in Lawson’s Bay colony. “I went to Hyderabad on Wednesday. My son called my wife and asked her to come to his house, saying he was not feeling well. This call was made by the kidnappers,” said MVV speaking to the media, as he reached Visakhapatnam airport.

After she came to his house in Rushikonda at around 8 am, Jyothi was taken hostage. The kidnappers made a call to MP’s auditor G Venkateswara Rao, known as GV, who is also a close friend of MP. After he came to Rushikonda, he was also taken hostage, and they demanded money for him.

“GV was their main target, as they expected a huge amount from him. The trio were kept as hostages. GV and Sarata were physically assaulted. The kidnappers expected that they would have cash at home. Even though they said their business transactions were only online, they did not believe it,” said the Commissioner of Police.

According to the police commissioner, GV and Sarat made an approximate amount of Rs 1.7 crore in transactions to the kidnappers. However, the kidnappers were expecting more.

Tracking phone signals

According to Satyanarayana, he has been calling GV since Wednesday afternoon but didn’t give a straight response. He said he is in Srikakulam on some work and cut the call.

“GV usually responds to my calls immediately, but when he did not respond to my calls on that morning, I found something suspicious. I contacted the police commissioner to find out,” said Satyanarayana.

When police teams tried to call him, GV responded, saying he was in Srikakulam and is fine. But when the police tracked his phone, they found that the calls were coming from the Rushikonda area, where the MP’s son was.

Police teams begin investigation

By the time the police teams reached Sarat’s residence in Rushikonda, the kidnappers were alerted and took away the three hostages in a car.

“The kidnappers fled the house along with their three hostages in a black Audi, the MP’s vehicle. PM Palem police teams chased the vehicle and traced them to Sontyam road. During the chase, the police vehicles collided with the Audi. In the end, the chase was successful and they were taken into custody,” said CP.

The gang was immediately questioned about the whereabouts of the MP's family. Soon, the kidnappers informed them about their location which the police traced to a nearby isolated place. The police managed to rescue them unharmed.

The Vizag CP said that the investigation is still going on, and more details about the kidnapping are sure to surface.