Pramesh S Jain & Binish Thomas (Sub-Editor)
I
n a joint operation officials of the Central crime branch along with the East Division police arrested a group of four officials from GST on the charges of Kidnap and Extortion.
The accused has been identified as,Manoj,Nagesh,Sonali,and Abhishek.
The accused according to the police working as Superintendent of Central Tax,South Commissionerate, Bengaluru Zone.Senior Intelligence Officer,GST Intelligence,Bengaluru Zone,Senior Intelligence Officer, GST Intelligence,Bengaluru Zone,Intelligence Officer,GST Intelligence,Bengaluru Zone raided the house of Keshav Tak,owner of an IT solution company in JB Nagar on August 30 on the pretext of raid accusing money laundering and financial fraud .
The accused posing as GST and ED officials detained him and seized his mobile before he along with his three friends taken to the office in JB Nagar where the accused assaulted them and locked them in separate room for several hours.
Later in the evening the accused took the victim in a SUV car moved around the city and demanded Rs.3 crore to drop the charges levelled against them.
The accused even put the victims phones in flight mode and connected the internet through hotspot.The accused forced Keshav to call his friend to arrange the money for which he followed the instruction.
Since it was a huge amount of money and could not be arranged for a short notice of time,the amount was negotiated and agreed upon to Rs.1.5 crore .
They released Mukesh Jain in the middle of the night to get the money while held three of the others hostages .
After collecting the cash in the wee hours of September 1,the accused took the signature of the victims and while leaving left behind the documents prepared by them as part of spot inspection.
Shocked Keshav discussed the incident with his friends and relatives before filing a complaint with the police.
Based on the complaint, the police analysed the sequences of events through different sources to confirm the incident and cross checked with the Director General of GST Intelligence,Bengaluru Zonal Unit (Central GST).
The police came to know that the accused are working in senior position and carried out the raid illegally without obtaining any permission from the authority concerned.
The accused have even seized some valuables from the victim and held them hostages for two days to extort the ransom, a police officer, said .
On Tuesday the police arrested the accused and recovered the valuables which they had seized on the pretext of inquiry and search.
The police have taken the accused into custody to ascertain whether the accused were involved in similar crimes before said a senior officer.
