THAI police rescued three Indian men who had been kidnapped by six other Indian men as well as a Pakistani man with a ransom of 2.5 million rupees (approximately 900,000 baht) demanded for the release of one of them, Amarin TV said this evening (April 18).
At 1 p.m. today, Pol. Lt. Gen. Sayam Boonsom, chief of Metropolitan Police, led a team to rescue the three Indian men, Mr. Amandeep Kajal, 27, Mr. Ramesh Sharma, 48, and Mr. Vipulkumar Shambhulal Patel, 41, at a house in Sukhumvit Soi 109, sub-soi Santi Kram 8, in Samut Prakan province.
This followed a complaint filed by Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, 27, to Pol. Lt. Akkharawich Nuanta, a deputy inspector at Yan Nawa police station, last Monday April 14 that Ramesh’s sister Ms. Harman Kour, had contacted him via WhatsApp messaging app that Mr. Sandhu Deep had texted her saying he was detaining her brother and Amandeep and demanded 2.5 million rupees ransom for his release warning that he would be harmed if she did not pay up.
The third kidnap victim, Vipulkumar, had been tricked by this same gang at Suvarnabhumi Airport and likewise kidnapped.
Sanjeev had Sandhu Deep’s mobile phone numbers, +66943312340 and +447429213103, which he gave to the police.
Sanjeev related that he had come to Thailand on April 5 together with Amandeep and Ramesh and initially stayed at Niagara Hotel, Sathorn Soi 10, but on April 11 moved to Diamond Residence Hotel on Silom road,
On April 14, at approximately 6 to 7 p.m. Amandeep and Ramesh left the hotel to board a flight to Vietnam with an Indian man coming to the hotel to take them to the airport and hailed a taxi there.
However, they were not taken to the airport and instead locked up at this house in Sukhumvit Soi 109.
Later, Pol. Col. Chotiwat, commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau’s Investigation Division, together with Chonburi Immigration Bureau followed up on the clues and tracked down and arrested Sandu Deep at a condominium at Bang Lamung district, Chonburi. Upon checking his mobile phone police found evidence that he had used it to contact the victims’ relatives.
While being questioned he confessed that they were being held at this house in Samut Prakan. When police got there they found the three victims with their hands and feet tied up and locked up there.
The victims told police that their kidnappers had threatened to cut off their organs and beat them with a stick wrapped with tape to get them to ask their relatives for the ransom money.
Mr. Wirat Lakchai, 53, the taxi driver who picked up the three Indians from the Silom hotel said one of them had hailed his cab and told him to wait as two friends were joining him. After that the two Indian men came with their luggage and all three got into his vehicle. He was told to drop them off at Sukhumvit Soi 109. They talked throughout the journey, and he could understand some of it because they spoke in English with an Indian accent.
When they reached their destination all three got out and walked into the house without any coercion or suspicious behaviour.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Wasan, deputy chief of Metropolitan Police, said the tactic of these suspects is to deceive and extort money from fellow countrymen by pretending to be a broker to arrange jobs for them in Austria. However, they were told they would have to stay in Bangkok until the paperwork is complete then fly there.
They then locked them up at this house and demanded around 1 million baht each ransom for their freedom, threatening to harm them and cut off their organs if they did not contact their relatives to send the large sum of money.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Wasan added that the suspects had entered the country legally but police are still investigating whether they had committed similar crimes before. Immigration Police and the Indian embassy will be contacted to check their background.
The damage so far added up to around 30,000 baht as the suspects were still negotiating the ransom and police caught them before any transfer was made.
Initially, the seven suspects, namely Mr. Sandhu Deep, 32, Mr. Sourav, 26, Mr. Simranjit Singh, 35, Mr. Abhishek, 25, Mr. Nitin Salaria, 36, and Mr. Gurwinder Singh, 35, all Indians, as well as Mr. Muhamad Afzal, 57, a Pakistani national, were sent to Yan Nawa police station where they were charged with jointly detaining others and attempting to extort money.
CAPTIONS:
Top, Front Page and first insert: The suspects and their victims. Photos: Amarin TV
Second insert: A police officer answering reporters’ questions about this case. All photos: Amarin TV
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