Three men were arrested by police on Thursday for kidnapping a manager of a private firm and his colleague, keeping them hostage for two hours after luring them to Faridabad from Tamil Nadu for a trade deal on Monday, said police.
The suspects were identified as Mohammad Bilal, 22, of Kankar Khedi in Nuh, Mohammad Talim, 21, of Khandawali in Faridabad and Mohammad Kaif, 22, Utawad in Palwal. At least five more suspects including Talim’s brother-in-law Mohammad Shakil, the mastermind, were yet to be arrested in the case.
The victims were identified as Prabhu Radha, 39, and his friend Vinoth G, 34, of Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu. Police said Radha was a manager of a private firm that was planning to purchase a 125kVA generator which costs upto ₹11.5 lakh.
Police said the incident took place between 1.30pm and 3.50pm on Monday when Prabhu and Vinoth reached the metro station in Ballabgarh after landing in Delhi to finalise the generator deal for ₹6 lakh which was almost half of the market price.
Varun Kumar Dahiya, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) (crime), said Radha’s senior had seen the advertisement of the generator sale on Facebook about 10 days ago.
“The seller’s contact number, which was of Shakil, was also provided in the advertisement. After contacting Shakil via WhatsApp, the superior finalised the deal. On his directions, Radha and Vinoth flew to Delhi from Chennai on August 25,” he said.
Dahiya said that the seller told him to take the metro to reach Ballabhgarh where a Hyundai Venue car will wait for pick up.
“Three suspects including Bilal and Shakil picked up Radha and Vinoth on pretext of taking them to the site where the generator was kept,” said ACP adding that the suspects took them hostage at gunpoint and snatched ₹7,900 from them.
“Afterwards, they kept moving at various locations in Faridabad for more than two hours and a fourth suspect also joined them in the car,” he said.
The suspects forced the duo to transfer money online to various accounts and robbed them of ₹39,000 overall along with a gold chain and finger ring from Vinoth, investigators said adding that the suspects set them free on Delhi-Mumbai expressway and fled the spot.
Police said the suspects had deleted all the data on the mobile phones of both the victims to erase the chats and call logs. The victims alerted the police control room following which a patrol team approached them.
On Radha’s complaint, an FIR for kidnapping and armed dacoity was registered against unidentified suspects at Sector 58 police station on Tuesday.