The Ullal police arrested seven persons on Tuesday, April 27, in connection with the kidnapping at KC Road and Hosangadi.
The arrested have been identified as Ahmed Iqbal (33) from Attavara in Mangaluru, Yakoob (33) from Manjeshwara in Kerala, Umar Nawaf (24) from Manjeshwara, Shamsheer (29) from Kasaragod, Sayyed Mohammed Kausar (41) from Uppala, Naushad (28) from Manjeshwara and Sheikh Mohammed Riyaz (28) from Uppala.
The police also seized three cars, one bike, 10 mobile phones, 2 swords, one dagger, property documents and a gold necklace weighing 120-gram from their possession.
It is alleged that on April 22, a man identified as Ahmed Ashraf was kidnapped from KC Road. Soon, even Ashraf’s friend, Javed was kidnapped from Hosangadi. The duo was locked up in a house and assaulted by the accused. The victims were rescued from Talapady on April 24. The accused had demanded money, original property documents for the property in Manjeshwara from the families of the victims. The accused had threatened to kill Ashraf and Javed if their families did not fulfil the said demands.
Kidnappers had lost their investments following the victim’s advice
It was later revealed that the victims Ashraf and Javed had advised the accused Iqbal to invest money in a company called MCT Trading, Toll Deal, cryptocurrency and Forex Trading. Ashraf and Javed had convinced Iqbal that he would get three times the return for his investments, following which Iqbal had invested ₹27 lakh.
Iqbal had also borrowed ₹5 lakh from the other accused in this case, Yakoob. Along with the profit, Ashraf and Javed had to pay ₹99 lakh to Iqbal. However, they only ended up paying ₹10 lakh. Even after over one year, Ashraf could not pay Iqbal the remaining money, which had led to his and Javed’s abduction.
Angered at the loss of his money, Iqbal had contacted Umar Nawaf to plot the kidnapping of Ashraf and Javed. The crime was successfully executed with the help of Umar Nawaf and his gang.
Umar Nawaf is a habitual offender who has ten cases registered against him in various police stations, including murder and robbery. He is also known to be the main accused in the ‘Target Ilyas’ case
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