KS Vilvapathi, who deals in textiles, and his assistants, Vinod KumarOne of the accused identified himself as a businessman and came to Delhi after promising to help him negotiate a deal with a garment factory in Bangladesh.
Soon after reaching Delhi on Thursday, one of the hijackers – Jiravani Babu – received Vilavpati and Kumar at the IGI airport and they boarded the car he had brought along. They first went to a place in Gurugram and then headed towards the hideout in Delhi, police said.
“One of the accused was in touch with the businessman for the last 20 days. He, somehow, convinced him to come to Delhi. He told him that he would help him in taking orders from another businessman from Bangladesh, who was also coming. Delhi,” said Inspector General (STF) Satish Balan in Haryana.
The kidnappers allegedly threatened to kill Vilvapathi and called her family members in Madurai for a ransom of Rs 50 lakh. Instead the family of the villavapati went to the police.
The Special Task Force (STF) in Haryana swung into action after Balan was informed about the ransom on Friday after receiving an SOS call from his Madurai counterpart and batchmate. Preliminary investigation has revealed that though the villavapati had come to Gurugram, he was taken to Delhi before his phone was switched off.
Haryana STF contacted the force in Delhi and started search. Vilvapati and Kumar were rescued from their home in Shyam Nagar at around 10 pm on Friday and their five kidnappers were arrested.
Balan said, “The businessman was running at a loss for some time. So, he immediately agreed to the offer and came to Delhi.”
It was Babu who came in contact with Villavapati after his name surfaced on the internet. On Thursday night itself, Vilvapathi called up his family in Madurai and asked them to arrange money. His family had lodged a kidnapping complaint with the local police. The arrested accused have been identified as Jiravani Babu, Asif Hussain, Mohammad Azad, Mohammad Karim and Mohammad Sonu, residents of Delhi.