Date:03/06/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/06/03/stories/2005060318840300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Girl freed after arrest of one kidnapper

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: Four persons who kidnapped a 16-year-old girl from Channapatna town in Bangalore Rural district on Wednesday, released her in the early hours of Thursday after the police arrested one of them.

Police said that around 7 a.m. on Wednesday the four-member gang kidnapped Manisha, daughter of Kesarchand, an electrical contractor, from near her house in Channapatna.

The kidnappers, who whisked away the girl in a car, later telephoned Kesarchand and demanded a ransom of Rs. 5 lakhs to release her. They asked Kesarchand to come near the flyover on Mysore Road in Bangalore on Wednesday night and hand over the money.

After Kesarchand lodged a complaint with the Channapatna police, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Channapatna Sub-division), Narayana, got in touch with the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Central Crime Branch (CCB), B.K. Shivaram, in Bangalore.

When the CCB team laid a trap for the kidnappers near the flyover, one of the kidnappers telephoned Kesarchand and asked him to come to Azad Circle, off Mysore Road. The police along with Kesarchand rushed there.

The kidnappers identified an inspector and a constable, who were part of the CCB team, and started running. The police chased them and caught one of them, Hussain Baig alias Farooq (35) of Yarabnagar in 2nd Stage, Banashankari.

After one of their accomplices was arrested, the kidnappers dropped Manisha near the Mysore Bank circle in the early hours of Thursday, police said.