A man who abducted a hotel employee recently to extort a ransom of Rs 48 lakh has been arrested by Kadugodi police.
Following a complaint lodged by the victim’s family, police arrested Swaroop Shetty from his ITPL Road apartment and released the youth identified as Arshad on Sunday.
A senior police officer said Swaroop had been a regular visitor to Radisson Blu Hotel, where he befriended Arshad. After a couple of days, Arshad began sharing his financial problems with Swaroop, who offered to help him.
On the pretext of help, Swaroop took Arshad to his apartment and began assaulting him.
Swaroop also made Arshad call his family in Haveri to arrange the ransom.
Investigations revealed that Swaroop tortured Arshad after consuming liquor and recorded the act on his mobile phone.
The accused extracted the contact details of Arshad’s family and later called him posing as a police officer to demand money.
He managed to extort Rs 48 lakh from Arshad’s family and relatives. Investigations revealed that Swaroop and his associates also extorted money from many others posing as the CEO of a multinational company.
Police took Swaroop to custody and are questioning him. They are making efforts to nab his associates.