5 students held for abduction

CHENNAI: Five students and a former student of a college on the city outskirts have been arrested for kidnapping another former student of the same college in a car on Friday.
The incident has once again brought to light the functioning of admission rackets in private engineering colleges in the city.
Police said Pappu alias Mohapatra,25, who allegedly secured engineering seats for aspirants for a commission and owed money to many people, was dragged out of an autorickshaw at Valasaravakkam and taken away in a car.
The autorickshaw driver immediately rang up police and informed them the car registration number.
Police soon arrested B Tech students Thanmyn Rajan Bhowa, 22, Anilkumar Jaiswal, 23, Kiran Prasa, 22, Sashank Saksena, 21, Sriram Thothud, 22, and a former student Suraj, 25. All the arrested are from Odisha, police said.
Pappu took away 35,000, a cheque and some documents of Pratap Singh who had come to him for a seat in an engineering college but gave Suraj a separate ‘commission.’
Singh then approached Suraj who decided to bring Pappu to Saligramam to get back the cash and documents. As per a plan, Thanmyn called Pappu to Saligramam and he came in an auto. Seeing Thanmyn in a car often used by Suraj, Pappu asked the auto driver to speed away but the others cornered the auto and abducted Pappu. The auto driver informed police.
“Special teams traced the car owner, Prem Anand, who said his son had given the car to his friend Prashant Raja. When questioned, Raja directed us to Vijaya Pandi of Chromepet. Vijaya Pandi said he gave the vehicle to his friend Suraj of Saligramam. Finally, we found the car parked near an apartment in Saligramam,” south Chennai joint commissioner of police K P Shanmuga Rajeswaran said.
Police teams barged into the house and nabbed all the six kidnappers and rescued Pappu. The arrested were later remanded in judicial custody.