Tortured, locked up for 8 days: Dubai travel agent kidnapped in Bengaluru after club call from friend ‘Mahima’; accused demanded Rs 2.5 crore ransom | Bengaluru News
BENGALURU: It had all the trappings of a gripping kidnap thriller: He received a call and the woman told him to step out of the pub and get into a car waiting outside with its headlights blinking. Eager to meet her, he stepped out, spotted the vehicle, and confirmed with the driver whether she had sent it. The driver nodded and he got in. But instead of heading towards Koramangala as expected, the cab took a different route. That’s when a sense of unease crept in. His fears came true moments later when two men suddenly entered the car and began assaulting him. It was clear now: he was taken!That marked the beginning of the ordeal for 37-year-old Lawrence Melwin, a native of Kerala, who worked as a manager in a travel agency in Dubai. According to Ashoknagar police, Melwin had come to Bengaluru to visit his family staying at Basavanagar. On July 14, Melwin visited a club in Indiranagar and it was when he received a call from a woman named Mahima Watt stating he could meet her and she would send a cab to pick him up.“I stepped out of the club around 3am. A cab with blinking lights stopped for me as Mahima had said. But two men later entered, assaulted me, and grabbed my bag, which contained Rs 1 lakh and two iPhones. They forced me to share the passwords of the phones,” Melwin told police. He was later driven to a service apartment and locked in the flat.“A third man entered the flat and demanded Rs 50 lakh to release me. I told them that I could arrange Rs 20 lakh, but they refused. They locked me in a room and provided food,” Melwin narrated.Meanwhile, the miscreants made Melwin send voice messages from his phone to his family members, saying he was in Kodagu. The kidnappers allegedly upped the ransom to Rs 2.5 crore and threatened him with dire consequences if he failed to pay up. On July 22, Melwin saw hope when a woman in the neighbouring flat responded to his cries for help. “I shared my sister’s mobile number with her, requesting her to inform her that I was here,” Melwin said.His family members suspected something was amiss and filed a complaint with Ashoknagar police. Cops found that his mobile phone’s last location was in Hebbal. By then, the kidnappers realised that the location was no longer a secret and moved him out.“I was quickly bundled into their car. After reaching Yeshwanthpur, they stopped near a star hotel and forced me to say I had Schizophrenia and that was why I felt I had been kidnapped. They recorded my statement on their mobile phones. Handing over a keypad mobile and my SIM along with Rs 1,000 in cash, they warned me not to approach police, or else, they would finish me,” Melwin stated. Using the phone, Melwin called his sister, and by then, cops, who had discovered his mobile location, reached the place.Based on the information, police arrested four accused: Mohammed Asif Risaldar, 42, Mohammed Sohail Sheik, 25, of RT Nagar, Salman Pasha, 22, of DJ Halli, and Mohammed Nawaz, 27, of KG Halli. While Risaldar and Sheik work as commission agents at Kandaya Bhavan on KG Road, others are employed in garages. “These four accused worked as directed by Mahima and two others,” police said.Now the question is: Who is Mahima? Melwin told police: “We met at a party in the city (Bengaluru), and since then, we have been friends.” Asked why Mahima decided to kidnap him, Melwin said he had no idea.“We have many loose ends in the case, and the missing dots will get connected once we get Mahima and others into our custody. Presently, Mahima and two of her close friends are elusive. Special teams have gone to Mumbai and Vijayapura in search of them. It looks like a financial dispute gone wrong,” an investigating officer said.
