Chennai: Gang of 10 arrested for abducting three traders

Among the victims, Abdul Jaffer and Thoufiq Raja of Theni district were into fruit business till a year ago, the police said. After a loss in the business due to lockdowns, they met one Jalil Rahman of Nellore who sells textiles on the pavement, who informed them that he could get diamonds for a cheaper price, which they can sell for huge margins.

On January 2, Abdul and Thoufiq reached the city with Rs 2 lakh and stayed at a lodge. Jalil took them to Nellore and bought 119 diamond studs of 11-carat value for Rs 1.86 lakh.

Later, the duo informed their acquaintance Muniyandi that they have diamond studs for sale and he connected them to the prime accused John, alias Antony Benedict Raj. After meeting them at Meenambakkam, Jaffer and Thoufiq agreed to sell the diamonds for Rs 5 lakh.

On January 20, John asked Jaffer and Thoufiq to come to Tiruporur on the pretext of buying the diamonds and lodged them at a house to threaten them to part with Rs 20 lakh to release them. After John called Thoufiq’s fiancé to demand Rs 20 lakh, Jaffer’s father rushed to Chennai and searched for them.

Meanwhile, John took the victims to Nellore and lured Jalil to Chennai, posing as a prospective buyer. Later, he was detained and his family in Nellore was threatened to part with Rs 20 lakh to release him. While the gang lodged the victims in two different places in Thaiyur and Thandalam, Jaffer’s father, Hakkim, approached the police on Thursday to rescue his son and Thoufiq.

Inspector Kirubanithi took the case for investigation as per the senior officials’ instructions and traced the accused through mobile phone tower location and rescued victims on Friday night.

As many as 10 persons in both the houses were secured. John’s aides were identified as Suman, Rajesh, John’s girlfriend Ashwini, Bhuvaneshwaran, Alphonse, Babu,

Venkatraman, Sarathbabu and Velmurugan. Two knives, two bikes, victims’ gold chain, and 119 diamond studs were seized from the gang.