Film distributor's staff kidnapped: 5, including student, held

CHENNAI: City police on Tuesday arrested five persons on kidnap charges after they barged into the office of a film distribution company in Virugambakkam and bundled two staff into a car and held them hostage. Police investigations revealed that the staff were kidnapped at the behest of a film producer over his beef with a distributor over a sour financial deal.

According to police, an eleven-member gang barged into the office of film distributor Madurai at Lakshmi Nagar, Chinna Porur on December 1. Since Madhuraj was not in the office, they threatened the two staff- Gopikrishna (37) and Benzer and took them to an apartment in Mannivakkam and forced them to discuss with the distributor and pay the dues worth Rs 1 crore to the film producer Karthik. Police sources said that Madhu Raj had signed a deal with the producer of the Tamil movie ‘Shoe’ starring Yogi Babu in the lead role to distribute the movie across the State and satellite rights for the movie.

According to a complaint by Gopikrishna, the gang threatened the two under knifepoint and took the ATM card from one of them and withdrew Rs 70,000, before letting them off.

Virugambakkam police team led by inspector Thompson Xavier nabbed the abductors S Nagaraj, 42, of Mannivakkam, R Vinodkumar, 36, of Mannivakkam, K Prashanth (23), of Otteri in Chengalpet, B Baskaran, (22), of Kilambakkam near Urapakkam, and V Nandakumar (23), of Vandalur from a hideout in Tambaram. The arrested Baskaran is a college student and Nagaraj and Vinodkumar are lawyers by profession, police said.

Search is on for six of their accomplices. All five persons were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.