Bengaluru: A 40-year-old man, in cahoots with two of his friends, unleashed a kidnap-and-ransom drama on his father, 62, to seek Rs 90 lakh in a high-strung 40-hour suspense spanning Bengaluru and Hassan.The drama ended on a peaceful note when police found out that the man, desperate for money from his timber merchant-father, had scripted his own kidnap.There was nothing alarming when Manish Patel informed his father Manohar that he was travelling from Bengaluru to Gadag on Tuesday night to collect money from an acquaintance in a financial matter. He said he would travel by train and call him the next morning.Around 8am on Wednesday, the call came from Manish’s phone, but the voice was that of a stranger. He claimed Manish had been abducted and demanded a ransom of Rs 90 lakh.
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After receiving 4-5 such calls at regular intervals, the phone went silent. A terrified Manohar approached RR Nagar police in Bengaluru and lodged a complaint on Wednesday evening. Police couldn’t track Manish’s phone as it remained switched off. The mystery deepened when the family received a call from an unidentified number asking whether the ransom had been arranged.Police traced the phone’s location to Hassan. When they knocked on the door of a suspected house on Thursday morning, they found Manish sitting comfortably with two friends, Sunil and Nagaraj. There was no sign of kidnapping.Deputy commissioner of police (West) Yatish N said Manish had conspired with two friends to stage the drama. All three were arrested. Police are probing why Manish sought such a large sum and what he intended to do with the money. Manish assists his father in the timber business. The family lived in Hassan before shifting to Bengaluru. The two arrested men are his friends from Hassan.
