TN native’s kidnap: Police to take gang into custody

Thiruvananthapuram: City police will conduct a detailed scientific probe into the incident in which a Tamil Nadu native was abducted by a gang to snatch the smuggled gold he was supposedly carrying with him, on Aug 14.
Five men were arrested in connection with the incident, and they were later sent to judicial remand for 14 days. The probe team will move a custody application on Monday to interrogate the accused.
On the night of Aug 14 Tirunelveli native Muhammed Umar, 23, was abducted by a gang while he was travelling in an autorickshaw at Sreekanteswaram.Police later arrested Hakkim, 30, Nishad, 33, Shafeeque, 31, Syed, 35, and Maheen, 32, over the incident.
However, the accused gave contradictory statements. During interrogation, some of the accused informed police that they received the information about the Tamil Nadu native’s arrival at the airport from another gold smuggling gang. However, the key accused Hakkim, who runs a shop near the airport, told police that the gang observed Umar visiting the airport frequently and they later deduced that his arrival at the airport was to receive smuggled gold from carriers. Umar then used to hand over the gold to some other people outside the airport.
The gang then decided to snatch the smuggled gold from him, but the carrier, Antony George Alex, a Kanyakumari native, was caught by customs officers on Aug 14. Due to this, Umar could not receive the gold.
Now the probe team wants clarity on whether the gold was smuggled for the gang or not. Had they committed similar abductions and gold snatching before? How did they get the information about gold smuggling and the Tamil Nadu native?
“The call details and tower locations of all the accused for the past one year will be examined, as well as their past activities. We will take the accused into custody next week for interrogation with the backing of several scientific and technical pieces of evidence,” said DCP Thiruvananthapuram, B V Vijay Bharath Reddy.