The Ernakulam Rural police on Monday arrested five persons on the charge of kidnapping a youth who had arrived from Oman reportedly with gold.
The arrested are Sreelal, 32, of Panoor, Kannur; Reneesh, 32, of Panthakkal; Libin, 32, of Panoor, Ajmal, 27, of Panoor; and Najeeb, 22, of Chokli. Police sources said preliminary investigation indicated that the accused were part of a gang engaged in robbing smuggled gold.
Hafsal of Thrissur landed at the Cochin international airport from Oman on Saturday morning following which he was allegedly abducted by the accused. According to the complaint, he was robbed of 1 kg of gold. The police are yet to recover the gold.
The victim and the accused were traced back to a lodge at Thalassery. The police said eight other youths were also found at the lodge and were being investigated. All suspects were taken into custody by the Nedumbassery police with the help of the Thalassery police. The victim was produced in a magistrate court.
The Nedumbassery police registered the case on the complaint of the victim’s mother. The First Information Report (FIR) said that the victim who landed at the airport around 8.30 a.m. did not reach home till late evening. Since then, FIR was altered to add charges of abduction.
