Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate of Police has arrested five persons on charges of kidnapping a senior citizen and demanding Rs 1.50 crore as a ransom for his release.
The victim in this case, Manoj Mohapatra is a retired Civil Supplies Officer who had gone to the Jagannath Nagar area to oversee the construction of his house but went missing.
A complaint was registered by his family members in this connection on March 24 following which a joint team of the Special Squad and Laxmi Sagar police started an investigation.
Meanwhile, the family members of the victim received a ransom call on which the miscreants demanded Rs 1.50 crore. Based on reliable inputs, it was ascertained that a group was hiding in the Delang area of Puri district, DCP Prateek Singh said.
“A raid was carried out on their hideout and Mohapatra was released, however, the miscreants managed to flee. We were successful in arresting all five of them and they have confessed to the crime,” Singh added.
The accused were identified as Kunu Nayak, Rajesh Das, Prakash Nayak, Dhiraj Kumar Sahu and Ananta Panda. They had plotted and executed the kidnapping for ransom, the DCP added.
The accused were booked under multiple Sections of the IPC and produced in a local court today. Further investigation is on, the police said.
