A 22-year-old hotel management student from Vizag who was kidnapped in Bangkok for ransom has returned home safely.
The student was kidnapped on August 28, but the local police came to know of it only on September 4. He was freed after being held hostage for nine days by the armed gang. K. Srinivas completed Bachelor of Hotel Management from the Chanakya Institute of Hotel Management in Vizag and did his internship in China. Following an advertisement on the internet, and as per the advice of one of his seniors Gottipati Manmadha Rao of Vizag and commission agent Jimmy Gupta of a fake shipping agency named Overseas Bizz Group based at Bangkok, Srinivas applied for a post of cruise ship. Srinivas paid nearly Rs. 2 lakh to Rao who promised employment on an Australian cruise ship with a salary of Rs. 96,000 a month.
Disclosing the details to media, Commissioner of Police J. Purnachandra Rao on Monday said, Srinivas left for Bangkok on August 28 and met Jimmy Gupta at Bangkok airport. Gupta gave him a fake Australian Visa. Suspecting something amiss, Srinivas grilled Gupta and refused to work on the Australian ship. Fearing that Srinivas might complain to the police, Gupta and three others abducted Srinivas demanding $25,000 (around Rs 13.4 lakh) for his release. On September 2, the kingpin of the gang, Jimmy Gupta sent an SMS and mail to Srinivas's father Hanumantha Rao, an employee in BHPV in Vizag demanding a ransom of Rs13.5 lakh.
Mr Rao deposited Rs 1.3 lakh in an account belonging to S. Maheswari on the direction of Abilash Elangovan of Chennai and Mammadha Rao of Vizag, who were part of the gang and mediated from India.
However, when the gang demanded Rs 12 lakh more on September 3, Mr Rao approached the police.
The gang was nabbed by tracking the email Id and rescued Srinivas on September 7. Srinivas returned to India on October 12 after court trial in Bangkok.
The city police arrested Abilash Elagovan and Gottipati Manmadha Rao, who had forwarded the fake e-mail sent by Gupta to Srinivas. Police have recovered Rs1.3 lakh from the duo.