The accused are: Rakesh C Sebenawar, 26, of Yeshwantpur, Arun Kumar R27, of Vidyaranyapura, and R Lokesh Kumar, 20, of Magadi Road. Police have recovered four mobile phones, car and bike from them.
The students are from a reputed college in Sadashivnagar and live in the college hostel. The incident took place on the night of 16 July. The accused said they were policemen and were interrogating students in connection with drug smuggling.
Investigation revealed that the accused used to provide information about drug smugglers and users in the city and helped the police in arresting some peddlers over the years. Police said, using their information network, they kidnapped two students and extorted money.
“First, they robbed a nursing student of Rs 10,000 and a bike. Then they took the nursing student in their car to the hostel of another victim, a physiotherapy student. The accused kept roaming in and around Yelahanka And got 1.7 lakh rupees transferred online from another student’s bank account. The other student lodged a police complaint that the accused threatened to implicate him in a drug case and extorted money.” Police said one of the accused was arrested last year in a robbery case. All three are friends and are unemployed.