Students kidnap class-X boy for Rs 1cr, held

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Police claimed Thursday to have cracked another kidnap case, second in the past two weeks, with the arrest of four Uttar Pradesh natives, including three students. One of the arrested is a B.E. student, while two are juveniles.

They have been accused of kidnapping class-X student Yuvaraj and demanding a ransom of Rs 1 crore.

Joint commissioner of police K. Shankar told reporters six special teams formed to rescue Yuvaraj traced the accused — Vijay, 18, Azam Israr Ahmed Khan, 22, and two 16-year-old plus-I students — to a hideout in Kodungaiyur. One of the juveniles is younger brother of Azam.

Police said four guns and 43 live cartridges were seized from the accused.

“We traced mobile calls made by the gang to Yuvaraj’s father Krish-nan,” a police officer said.
“The arrested siblings revealed their father Israr Ahmed Khan was languishing in a UP jail. The weapons seized were his,” Shankar said.

Police said Vijay planned the kidnap with a friend to make a fast buck. On the pretext of a joy ride, they took Yuvaraj to ECR Sunday. The two and aides took him to several places in a hired cab and kept calling his parents through Wednesday evening for ransom.

Kidnappers took 3 days to make ransom call

The kidnappers of the son of an iron scrap merchant waited for three days before they made the ransom call.

“There was a difference of opinion among the kidnappers whether to go ahead or call off the ‘mission’. That is why the delay of three days in demanding the ransom,” a senior police officer said.

It looks like the four-member gang was split about going ahead with the kidnap. They had guns to threaten, they had the hostage to demand ransom, they had a new SIM card to call the hostage’s family.

But it took three days for them make the call to the mobile phone of Yuvaraj’s father after making up their mind to go ahead with their Rs 1 crore ‘mission’.

It was 18-year-old BE student Vijay, son of a late financier from Tirunelveli, who masterminded the kidnap plan. He came in contact with two brothers (Azam Khan, 22, and his 16-year-old brother, who is doing Plus-1 privately). The brothers, sons of Musharaf Khan from Uttar Pradesh, came to Chennai nearly 20 years ago after he had to face a murder case in his native place.

A year ago, Musharaf was arrested by the UP police. The family was running a small plastic manufacturing firm in Red Hills. The brothers had told Vijay that they had guns, brought by their father from UP.

Vijay befriended Yuvaraj through a common friend — a boy studying Plus-1 in a local school. All the five went for an outing on Sunday on ECR in a hired four-wheeler and on return, took Yuvaraj forcibly to Vijay’s house, where he was held captive.

The police said the gang threatened Yuvaraj with guns. They brushed aside the possibility of the boy being part of the kidnap conspiracy.