Drug addicts abduct 11-yr-old boy, demand Rs 2 crore ransom

Bengaluru: Police rescued an 11-year-old boy within 24 hours of him being kidnapped from an area in the city and arrested six abductors who demanded a ransom of Rs 2 crore for releasing him, police said on Saturday.

"I appreciate the Bengaluru East Division officers and staff for arresting six persons within 24 hours of kidnapping an 11-year-old boy," Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant said. According to the Additional Commissioner of police (East Zone) S Murugan, those arrested are Fahim, Mujammil, Faizan, Mohammed Shahid, Kaleel and Mohammed Zayn.

All of them are in the age group of 20 to 30 years and are allegedly drug addicts, police said.

"Mohammed Shahid is facing a robbery case.They were the boy's neighbours.They had followed the boy for many days," Murugan said. He said the boy was playing near his house on Thursday when the gang lured him and took him away on the pretext of giving him a kite. They took him in a car after drugging him by mixing calmpose pills in a soft drink so that he did not make any noise and drove the vehicle towards Tumakuru, police said.

While the family was in distress over the missing child, in the wee hours of Friday, the boy's father, who is a cloth merchant, received a call from the abductors to arrange Rs 2 crore.

Shaken by the call, the boy's father called the police. Quickly five teams were formed, which was led by the inspectors of five police stations. The team worked in a coordinated manner and found out that the accused were in Tumakuru.

The teams drove to Tumakuru and chased them for 15 kilometres until the abductors' car overturned.

Police arrested five of them from the spot and rescued the boy. Mohammed Zayn, who was allegedly the mastermind, was arrested from Shyampur. When the police team went to arrest him, he attacked them and the personnel had to open fire in self-defence, wounding him in his right leg, police said. He is undergoing treatment in hospital, they added.