Eight people have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping three employees of an IT firm here for ransom, by masquerading as CID officials of Andhra Pradesh, the Cyberabad police said on Tuesday.
On January 27, the Director of the company lodged a complaint with the police following which a case was registered, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Madhapur Zone) Vineeth G said.
During the course of inquiry, eight accused, including a lawyer, a cyber expert, former manager of the IT firm were arrested, the DCP said adding four cars, 16 cell phones were seized from the accused.
According to police, the advocate conspired with the former official of the firm to demand ransom from the company's directors.
The advocate discussed the plan with a police officer known to him and based on his advice hatched a plot to raid the company office, they said.
As part of the plan, the accused had entered the firm on January 26 by posing as CB-CID police and turned off the power supply to the systems before removing the Digital Video Recorder of the CCTV cameras in the premises, a release from Cyberabad Police Commissionerate said.
They also claimed to have received complaints from US authorities about irregularities in the company, it said.
Initially, the gang demanded Rs 10 crore from the Director and settled for Rs 2.3 crore after negotiations.
Later, the gang forcefully bundled three employees into their vehicles and took them to a hotel in Madhapur, where the hostages were threatened of dire consequences if the company failed to pay the ransom.
Further, the accused took the debit cards from the hostages and withdrew Rs 2.5 lakhs from their bank accounts.
When the director failed to pay the amount, the gang members grew suspicious and fled the spot leaving behind the hostages in the hotel room, police said.
Based on a tip-off, all the accused were arrested and on interrogation they confessed to the crime, police added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
