The Nashik rural police, on Friday, successfully foiled a kidnapping bid and arrested eight kidnappers with `5 crore ransom, three handguns, 78 bullets, a Daewoo Matiz car and motorcycles.
All the kidnappers are aged below 25 years and one is in his teens. SP (Rural) Pravinkumar Padwal said that the kidnappers had abducted a onion merchant Karsandas Mulji Thakkar (55) from Pimpalgaon Baswant village of Nashik district on December 29 and demanded a `15 crore ransom. After making the ransom call, the kidnappers threatened the family not to inform the police or they would kill the merchant. The family, however, defied the threat and informed the police. The family held negotiations with the kidnappers in the presence of the police and settled to pay `5 crore.
After the deal was made, the kidnappers asked a family member to bring the ransom to a remote place near Shiblapur Road in Sangamner tehsil of Ahmednagar.
After the ransom amount was handed over, Karsandas was released. However, before the kidnappers could run get away with the money, barricades were already in place with hundreds of policemen swarming the area and arrested the abductors.