3 held for abducting realtor, extorting Rs 5 lakh

Police nabbed a three-member gang, which allegedly detained a realtor at a house in Malayambakkam in Sriperumbudur and escaped with Rs five lakh from him, on Sunday. The trio had contacted the victim, a real estate businessman, on the pretext of selling a plot and kidnapped him on December 11.

The victim Ramamurthy (67), who is into real estate business after retiring from railways, got a call from the gang on December 10, saying they wanted to sell a 2,400 square feet land at Perumalpattu. After inspecting the plot, he paid them Rs 25,000 as advance and took a photocopy of the land document from one Chandrakumar (40) of Veppampattu.

On Friday, Chandrakumar called him to inform him that he was in urgent need of money and asked him to bring Rs five lakh and take the original documents. Believing that, Ramamurthy met them on 400 Feet Road in Poonamallee where Chandrakumar, his friend Subash (26) of Sembarambakkam and relative Kandha (23) of Vepampattu were waiting for him.

They bundled him into a car and took him to a rented house in Malayambakkam where he was detained for a day. They released him the next day after taking the money that he had brought. Based on Ramamurthy’s complaint, a team from Nazarathpet police arrested the trio. Further investigation is on.