Eight persons were arrested on Friday for allegedly kidnapping a businessman's son and extorting a ransom of Rs 1 crore from his family in Gujarat's Surat city.
Based on a tip-off, the Surat crime branch first arrested four persons, who were allegedly trying to flee to Vadodara with Rs 99.14 lakh cash, and then arrested the other accused from near Kosamba bridge on Surat-Vadodara Highway, an official said.
Businessman Anwar Dudhwala had approached the police on Thursday alleging that his 36-year-old son Komil was kidnapped by unidentified persons when he was returning home from a gym in the morning on his motorcycle, the official said.
As per the complaint, four persons kidnapped Komil in a car after knocking him down from his bike, and later called the family, demanding a ransom of Rs 3 crore, he said.
The police instructed Mr Dudhwala to negotiate with the kidnappers and settle for Rs 1 crore as ransom, following which the accused released the victim on Kamrej highway on Thursday night after getting the money, he said.
The accused have been identified as Ajay Damla, Chirag Yadav, Sonu Goswami, Faizkhan Usman, Arvind Vadhel, Ishtiyak Shaikh, Irshad Multani and Santosh Patil.
Apart from the cash, police also recovered two country-made pistols and three cartridges from their possession.
Barring Vadhel and Patil, six others are repeat offenders involved in cases of theft and robbery, it was stated.
