Hyderabad, January 6: Jubilee Hills police on Wednesday apprehended a gang of six persons for kidnapping a film producer-director and extorted almost Rs 11 lakh from him. Over Rs 8 lakh, apart from gold jewellery and cellular phones and a car was also seized from the gang.
According to police, the gang of six, led by Raaj Varma, a film producer himself along with Vinay Kumar, G Giri, Vinod Yadav, P Mahesh and R Bose Naidu were arrested on charges of kidnapping one Uma Maheshwar Rao, a native of Srikakulam.
The police said that the six accused had kidnapped Maheshwar Rao for dodging repayment of interest on the the Rs 30 lakh loan he had taken from Raaj Varma.
The principal amount had been repaid, the police said.
Unable to bear the harassment for payment of the money, Maheshwar Rao shifted to Navanirman nagar, where he launched a film with Gautham under his own direction.
Raaj Varma got wind of this and took the help of the other five to kidnap and extort money from Maheshwar rao.
The gang then kidnapped Uma Maheshwar and detained him in a private lodge in Kondapur and made him call his wife and collected Rs.1.9 Lakhs, 6 tolas gold jewellery from her house. They later withdrew 9 Lakhs from his wife’s bank.
The gang released the producer-director on December 31. Maheshwar Rao filed a complaint after his release, leading to the arrest of the gang.
INN