Pramesh Jain
The Whitefield Division police of Kadugodi police have arrested an I yee state fraudster who had abducted a hotel employee for many days to extort ransom of Rs.48 lakh from his family.
Based on the complaint filed by the family, the kadugodi police arrested the accused from a prestigious apartment in ITPL road and rescued the youth identified as Arshad on Sunday.
According to the police the accused Swaroop Shetty met Arshad at Radison blue hotel where he was working.
Swaroop was a regular customer to the hotel and befriended Arshad .
After formal introduction Arshad shared his financial problem he was facing due to huge loan, for which Swaroop offered to help.
He took Arshad to his apartment on the pretext of help and tortured him before calling his family in Haveri for ransom.
Swaroop used to get drunk and take drugs before torturing Arshad.The entire episode he would record in his mobile.
He also tortured Arshad to get information about the family members and relatives and would call them posing as police officer to extort money.
Using the modus operandi,the accused extorted Rs.48 lakh from Arshad family and relatives and started demanding for more.
Unable to bare harassment Mohammed Rafi, uncle of Arshad has filed a complaint,based on which the police arrested the accused.
Senior officer told reporters,Swaroop took Arshad to his Kadugodi apartment and kept him in confinement for three months and tortured him severely.
He also recorded a video of Arshad during the confinement.Arshad managed to escape from the clutches of Swaroop after three months and informed the matter to the police.It came to light during the investigation that Swaroop has seven cases registered against his name in Mangaluru also.
Detailed Investigation revealed that the accused had cheated several persons in Pune posing as CEO of MNC.
Kadugodi police have arrested Swaroop and further investigation is on.The police are investigating further to trace Swaroop’s associates identified as Kiran B, Subina and Sandeep Rai he added.
