Four persons, including Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi State students’ wing secretary P. Kumanan, 38, and G. Balakrishnan, 33, its district functionary were arrested by the Coimbatore city police on Saturday on charges of kidnap and murder attempt.
The police said the victim, S. Venkatesh, 38, of Pari Nagar, near Sungam, worked as a marketing executive in a steel manufacturing company near Sulur.
He started a steel trading business near Ganapathy with three others, including two of the accused, namely, S. Bhuvaneshwar, 26, of Tirupur and S. Karthikeyan, 30, of Maniyakaranpalayam.
The police said Venkatesh had to pay Rs.11 lakh to Bhuvaneshwar and Karthikeyan, but he delayed it. The two reportedly approached Kumanan and Balakrishnan to get the money.
Inspector C. Rajkumar said the four accused met Venkatesh on Tiruchi Road here, grabbed his mobile phone, and assaulted him at a house at Neelikonampalayam.
They made him call up his previous employer and to get him despatch a load of steel to a destination. The accused had planned to take the load for the money Venkatesh owed them.
The company owner, P. Prabhu, realised that he got wrong information when he called up the destination to which he was to send the load. He then called Venkatesh (in the custody of the accused) and asked him to come to the office at Race Course.
Suspecting foul play, the owner informed the Race Course Police who surrounded the accused and nabbed them late on Saturday.
The accused were booked under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 447 (criminal trespass), 363 (kidnapping), 342 (wrongful confinement), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), and 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
A search was on for their accomplice Kannan who managed to escape.
On Sunday, the arrested were produced before Judicial Magistrate-IV of Coimbatore who remanded them in judicial custody to the Coimbatore Central Prison.
