Ettumanoor: Prompt police intervention helped in rescuing a 24-year-old man from the clutches of a gang of ganja peddlers here in Kottayam district within eight hours of his kidnapping. Two natives of Pathanamthitta district have been arrested along with their target, though six more have to be arrested in connection with the case.
The Gandhinagar police on the outskirts of Kottayam town said that the youth Jobin Jose of Veloor in Kottayam had taken Rs 25,000 from the gang after promising them to supply ganja. But as he did not supply ganja or return the money, he was abducted, the cops stated.
Libin Prakash, 28 and Ratheesh Sukumaran, 36, have been arrested over the incident. Both of them are from Pullad Muri in Pathanamthitta. The police said that the duo were accused in several cases.
Jobin, who was abducted by the gang, was also taken into custody.
"Jobin was linked to the ganja-peddling gangs in Kottayam and Pathanamthitta. He was also an accused in a robbery case," Kottayam Deputy Superintendent of Police M Anil Kumar said.
When police was alerted
The incident happened near the Floral Park bar, near the Kottayam Medical College at Gandhi Nagar, around 9.30pm on Wednesday. A shopkeeper nearby saw a gang manhandling Jobin and forcefully taking him away in the car. He soon informed the police.
Luckily, Jobin's phone had fallen on the ground during the scuffle, and the police found this, proving to be a turning point. Soon after, Jobin himself called on to this mobile phone.
He said that he had lost his phone and that it should be given at a nearby shop. The cops looked up the phone number from which the call was made to the mobile and found that the SIM card was in the name of a Thiruvalla native, who was a criminal.
The police were then convinced that Jobin was abducted and initiated a probe, focussing on Thiruvalla town in Pathanamthitta.
The car in which the gang travelled was traced by 1am on Thursday. The police chased the speeding car and nabbed the culprits at the Pullad-Anamala region around 5.30am. But the first accused, who was at the wheel, managed to flee.
Jobin was found injured in the car. After taking him to the Gandhi Nagar police station, Jobin was given the first-aid at the Kottayam Medical College Hospital.
Gandhi Nagar station house officer Suresh V Nair, SI C R Haridas, CPOs Praveen, Ragesh, P V Manoj, Ajith Kumar, Shyju Kuruvilla, Anish Vijaylal, Radhakrishnan, Shashikumar, and Sony took part in the investigation.
