Two men kidnap Vizag realtor for Rs. 5 crore ransom, arrested

Visakhapatnam: The Vizag city police, on 10 July, arrested two of a seven-member gang who had reportedly kidnapped a realtor, Jami Suresh, and his advocate, S.L.N Raju, in a bid to extort money from him.

The arrested were identified as Pallapu Prasad alias Karnata Prasad from Guntur district and P. Ramreddy alias Prathap Reddy, a resident of the Chinamushivada area in Vizag city. The commissioner of police, Rajeev Kumar Meena, said the two were the kingpins in the kidnapping case. Prathap reportedly was acquainted with the victim.

Prathap and Prasad have been friends for many years and were involved in several criminal activities. The duo hatched a plan to kidnap and extort money from Mr. Suresh. They planned to kidnap him and blackmail him over his criminal past. "They thought he would not inform the police since he would not be able to explain his ill-gotten wealth,” said the commissioner.

On 25 June, Prasad came to the city along with his family and stayed at a lodge. He planned to leave the city after the kidnapping with his family to avoid suspicion. The duo arrested Mr. Suresh near the DRM office on 5 July and took him to a place near Parawada in Vizag city.

They beat him up and demanded Rs. 5 crore cash. The injured Suresh promised to pay them Rs. 30 lakh after selling his gold ornaments. But when the two men went to the realtor's home, his wife refused to part with the gold claiming her husband had sold her gold several times. Meanwhile, Mr. Suresh's son, seeing his father's injuries, called the 100 police control room. The kidnappers, however, managed to escape from the spot.