Three arrested, lethal weapons, car, fake pistol seized

Mysore/Mysuru: The Mysuru District Police have arrested three persons on charges of kidnapping for ransom and extorting money from  a commission agent and the Cops have seized lethal weapons, a fake pistol and a car used for the crime from them.

Addressing a press meet at his office here yesterday, Superintendent of Police (SP) C.B. Ryshyanth said that the arrested are 40-year-old Javeed Khan alias Cyanide Javeed of Kalyangiri, 26-year-old Mohammed Ajeeb of Udayagiri and 24-year-old Shakiruddin of Rajivnagar. The Police have launched a hunt to nab five others, who are absconding.

The SP further stated that one Zabikhan, a resident of Agrahara in Chamarajanagar, who was a commission agent in granite business used to always travel in high-end costly cars, which was observed by Javeed and his gang members and the gang had decided to kidnap Zabikhan for at least Rs. 1 crore ransom.

Accordingly, on Jan. 10 at about 8.30 pm, when Zabikhan was on his way to Mysuru from Chamarajanagar, Javeed and his gang of eight members, who came in two cars, waylaid Zabikhan in front of a distillery in Nanjangud, threatened him with a pistol and kidnapped him in their car.

The gang, who took Zabikhan to a hillock near Bidadi in Ramanagar district, took away Rs. 2,000 cash, a two grams gold pendant and also got Rs. 16,000 cash using Zabikhan’s ATM card. Not satisfied with such meagre cash, the kidnappers demanded Rs. 1 crore from Zabikhan for his release, the SP stated. 

Though Zabikhan had told the kidnappers, that the cars in which he travels was not his and he was just a commission agent, the kidnappers, who did not believe him, took him to Nagamangala, where they held him hostage at a lodge and called Zabikhan’s family members and put fort their demand failing which they would kill Zabikhan. Desperate to free Zabikhan, his family members, somehow arranged Rs. 6.70 lakh, paid the same to the kidnappers and got him freed. The kidnappers had warned Zabikhan and his family against lodging complaint with the Police besides threatening to kill them.

SP Ryshyanth said that even after Zabikhan returned home, the kidnappers, who had kept an eye on him, used to call him over the phone and threaten him. Shocked over the phone calls, Zabikhan had stayed in his home without going out for two months, but the kidnappers had called him again and demanded money besides threatening to kill him if he failed to give money.

SP Ryshyanth saifd that, Zabikhan, fed up with this, had lodged a complaint at Nanjangud Rural Police Station and the Police, who took up the investigation, were successful in arresting three of the eight accused.

The SP said that prime accused Javeed Khan was notoriously known as ‘Cyanide Javeed’ and had a murder case registered against him at Lashkar Police Station in 2007, one case each in Mandya and Hassan in 2011 and in 2020, he was arrested under Arms Act by the Bengaluru CCB Police and was jailed. Under the guidance of Additional Superintendent of Police R. Shivakumar and Dy.SP Govindaraju, Nanjangud Inspector Lakshmikanth Talawar, Nanjangud Rural SI Satish, Town SI Y.N. Ravikumar and staff Krishna, Satish, Suresh, Chethan, Ajjaiah, Ravikumar, Hemesh, Raju, Mahesh and Cheluvaraju took part in the operation, SP Ryshyanth said.